Conservatives maintain that they believe in the Constitution, limited government, private property, individual liberty, and the free market. Their actions when it comes to foreign aid show that they believe in none of those things.
According to ForeignAssistance.gov (a new government website dedicated to foreign aid),
The U.S. Government provides assistance to over 100 countries around the world.
There are over 20 U.S. Government agencies responsible for either funding or executing U.S. foreign assistance activities.
Foreign assistance funding is classified into one of nine categories, which is further detailed into 52 sectors. Funds are uniquely aligned to one category and sector.
For fiscal year 2017, the top ten U.S. foreign assistance recipients are as follows:
- Afghanistan, $4.7 billion
- Israel, $3.1 billion
- Egypt, $1.46 billion
- Iraq, $1.14 billion
- Jordan, $1 billion
- Pakistan, $742 million
- Kenya, $626.4 million
- Nigeria, $606.1 million
- Tanzania, $575.3 million
- Ethiopia, $513.7 million
Total spending on foreign aid for fiscal year 2017 comes to $42.4 billion.
For fiscal year 2018, Donald Trump has proposed a 30.8 percent reduction in five foreign-assistance programs. That has alarmed some government bureaucrats and the writers of an article in Foreign Policy. Trump’s proposed reduction was put in perspective by some writers at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. In an article titled “Panic over Foreign Aid Budget Could Use Some Perspective,” they point out that “the foreign assistance budget nearly tripled under the George W. Bush administration from $9.1 billion in 1999 to $26 billion in 2008” and that “spending on foreign assistance increased even further under the Obama administration to $42.4 billion.”
