I see a lot of people saying to cut foreign aide. Think about this, stole it from another forum.

I think there's a gross misunderstanding of what "foreign aid" really is.

We send a lot of stuff overseas, but in terms of money, a lot of that "foreign aid" benefits people in the US, not overseas.

The way it works is like this: Let's say we want to send "foreign aid" to the Republic of Kookistan as a way of buying their support in our war.

So, we say "we'll give you 150 Q-35 Disintegrator guns, and the personnel to train you on how they're used." The Q-35 is made by Consolidated Widget, a US company. The personel to train the Kookistan military are from Mercenaries, Inc, a US-based military training company. And more than likely the Q-35's and the personnel are being transported on a US commercial carrier, US-Shipping.

Kookistan gets the Q-35s, and the training, but Uncle Sam doesn't write checks to the Government of Kookistan. It writes checks to Consolidated Widget, Mercenaries, Inc, and US-Shipping - all US entities.

In many ways, "foreign aid", like military spending, is a form of "patronage" (or if you prefer, "corporate welfare.") IOW, it's about sending US $$ not to other countries, but to US companies who then provide goods or services to other countries.

And that's one reason it's so tough to cut foreign aid. Because there are a lot of folks right here in the US who depend, for their jobs, on the existence of "foreign aid" and you can bet they'll fight any cuts tooth and nail.