Quotes About Us Foreign Aid

“Congress has shortchanged not only foreign aid but foreign policy. A mistaken notion that diplomats are unimportant and hence undeserving of support grips conservative legislators, especially.”

— Anthony Lewis

“The United States has made a massive effort since the end of the Second World War to secure the dominance of its films in foreign markets - an achievement generally pushed home politically, by writing clauses into various treaties and aid packages.”

— Fredric Jameson

“Foreign aid is neither a failure nor a panacea. It is, instead, an important tool of American policy that can serve the interests of the United States and the world if wisely administered.”

— Lee H. Hamilton

“Many critics of the Palestinians, especially those in Congress, think the current calm is merely the eye of the storm. That's why the House of Representatives approved a foreign aid package last week that forbade the direct financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority .”

— Suzanne Fields

“Barack Obama has talked a lot about changing the way America relates to the world, and few areas are as ripe for reform as our policies on foreign aid.”

— Iqbal Quadir

“A majority of people in these surveys also said that America gives too much aid
but when they were asked how much America should give, the median answers ranged from 5 percent to 10 percent of government spending. In other words, people wanted foreign aid 'cut' to an amount five to ten times greater than the United States actually gives!”

— Peter Singer

“Despite the hundreds of non-governmental organizations and the continued outpouring of foreign aid, East Africa remains as a region overwhelmed by extreme poverty.”

— Jacqueline Novogratz

“By pouring money and goods into devastated regions, foreign aid workers sometimes compound the disruption and debauch the survivors.”

— James Buchan

“By philosophy the mind of man comes to itself, and from henceforth rests on itself without foreign aid, and is completely master of itself, as the dancer of his feet, or the boxer of his hands.”

— Johann Gottlieb Fichte

“Maybe this will be the beginning of a trend? Flat taxes, cutting foreign aid, a referendum on Europe, grammar schools. Who knows?”

— Nigel Farage

“I experienced how foreign aid for large-scale vaccination projects helps to save the life of children and thus give a real input to growth and to escaping poverty.”

— Jonas Gahr Store

“I would replace most foreign aid with a tax credit for businesses to invest. I think U.S. bureaucrats giving foreign bureaucrats money is a guaranteed failure. And we've had about 50 years' experience at failing with foreign aid.”

— Newt Gingrich

“Taiwan gives a lot of foreign aid to Costa Rica, so it looks like they are basically buying the right to fish, even though it's not legal.”

— Paul Watson

“Foreign aid is not something the vast majority of Americans support, but definitely not conservatives.”

— Rand Paul

“Each one of my budgets has taken a meat axe to foreign aid, because I think we ought to quit sending it to countries that hate us.”

— Rand Paul

“Foreign aid projects have pumped billions of dollars into the Afghan economy.”

— Richard Engel

“The things you leave school knowing - some dates and long division - so much of it has been of no use to me. Schools should teach the basics of cookery, first aid, how to look after your money and how to speak foreign languages. Useful things.”

— Jane Asher

“There is no softer target in GOP primaries than the United Nations and foreign-aid spending.”

— Elliott Abrams

“For American foreign aid to become more effective, it must embrace the power of partnerships, access the transformative nature of free enterprise, and leverage the abundant resources that can come from the private sector.”

— Mitt Romney

“I have said it before but it bears repeating: Aid is not a gift. The United States provides foreign assistance because it serves OUR interests.”

— Howard Berman

“A terrific, stimulating book ... Ramalingam clearly and engagingly shows how the use of complex adaptive systems thinking can significantly strengthen and enhance the impacts and effectiveness of global foreign aid.”

— Jerry Sabloff

“If we stuck to the Constitution as written, we would have: no federal meddling in our schools; no Federal Reserve; no U.S. membership in the UN; no gun control; and no foreign aid. We would have no welfare for big corporations, or the "poor"; no American troops in 100 foreign countries; no NAFTA, GAT, or "fast-track"; no arrogant federal judges usurping states rights; no attacks on private property; no income tax. We could get rid of most of the agencies, and most of the budget. The government would be small, frugal, and limited.”

— Ron Paul

“Foreign aid has been perfected so that it subsidizes corporate U.S. agriculture while preventing poor countries from developing profitable agriculture or feeding themselves.”

— Nicholas Von Hoffman

“Fortifications, artillery, foreign aid - will be of no value, unless the ordinary soldier knows that it is HE guarding his country”

— Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim

“We need a revolution in development thinking and practice. Foreign aid, debt relief, family planning, democracy, education, and free markets have not succeeded.”

— William Easterly

“None of what we [as country] have done is credited. None of the good works. Our foreign affairs budget, foreign aid budget, none of it is ever thanked.”

— Rush Limbaugh

“Foreign aid breeds kleptocracies, or governments of thieves.”

— James Bovard

“Foreign Assistance is not an end in itself. The purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it is no longer needed.”

— Barack Obama

“Foreign aid is a method by which the United States maintains a position of influence and control around the world”

— John F. Kennedy

“One of the most ridiculous defenses of foreign aid is that it is a very small part of our national income. If the average American set fire to a five-dollar bill, it would be an even smaller percentage of his annual income. But everyone would consider him foolish for doing it.”

— Thomas Sowell

“The issue is: $1 trillion or $2 trillion is a lot of money. If our objective is to have stability in the Middle East, secure oil, or extend democracy, you can do a lot of democracy buying for this sum. To put it in context: The whole world spends $50 billion a year on foreign aid.”

— Joseph Stiglitz

“Foreign aid goes from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.”

— Rand Paul

“There is a profound contrast between the effects of foreign aid and of voluntary private investment: foreign aid goes from government to government. It is therefore almost inevitably statist and socialistic.”

— Henry Hazlitt

“Government-to-government foreign aid promotes statism, centralized planning, socialism, dependence, pauperization, inefficiency, and waste. It prolongs the poverty it is designed to cure. Voluntary private investment in private enterprise, on the other hand, promotes capitalism, production, independence, and self-reliance.”

— Henry Hazlitt

“We stand for self-reliance. We hope for foreign aid but cannot be dependent on it; we depend on our own efforts, on the creative power of the whole army and the entire people.”

— Mao Zedong

“Foreign aid is important. If it's done right, it spreads America's influence around the world in a positive way.”

— Marco Rubio