Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Replace government foreign aid with charitable giving
administration to make changes in how foreign aid is administered.
Much is wrong with the current way the U.S. does foreign aid and the
Foreign Assistance Act came into being during the Kennedy
Administration, some 45 years ago.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97646244
Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) says that with pressure to deal
with domestic problems, it would be a mistake to ignore foreign aid.
"Because the challenges and the threats that are facing the American
people from every corner of the world will not go away if we ignore
them."
"We desperately need to reform our system," she says. "We need to
re-engage in development in a whole new way, because it not only is,
in my opinion, the morally right thing to do, but it is what will
bring much more security to our country in the long run."
McCollum proposes a cabinet level official devoted to development.
Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute has doubts
about such an appointment. He says it's better that administration of
foreign aid stay under the State Department.
Part of the problem with foreign aid, says McCollum, is that too many
government agencies are involved in administering foreign aid. Foreign
aid is micromanaged.
Another problem is that most of the aid dollars stay in the United
States. This "services our universities very well; it services our
beltway bandit corporations very well; the only thing that doesn't get
serviced terribly well is development in this current situation,"
Eberstadt says.
U.S. foreign aid also has the reputation for supporting corrupt
infrastructure abroad, rather than getting the help to where it is
needed.
Earlier this year when Congress was considering the president's
emergency bill to support AIDS treatment in Africa, Congressman Ron
Paul warned that government programs decrease the amount of aid that
private groups put into areas of need. "Much of this aid will run
through government-to-government channels and will be vulnerable to
corruption. Some of the aid will be sent to faith-based organizations
who, along with accepting government largess, will now be subject to
governmental controls and will soon become more dependent on taxpayer
funding than private funds."
In referring to the AIDS bill, Paul said: "Africans should decide what
is best for Africa. American taxpayers should decide what charities
deserve their money. Forcibly taking money from the United States and
sending it overseas is unconstitutional and immoral."
He pointed out that when asked what their main developmental concerns
were, Africans said they are much more concerned about jobs,
agriculture and basic infrastructure than they are about health issues
like AIDS.
In 2006 Americans gave $295 billion to charitable organizations, both
foreign and domestic. Americans are a generous people. They also
tend to be a lot more careful with their own money than government is.
If government got out of the business of foreign aid entirely,
reducingtaxes and barriers to giving, Americas contribution overseas
would likely be much more significant. Foreign aid doesn't help our
image abroad. Caring Americans could make a great difference.
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