Letter: U.S. stingy with global aid, cheap with services here

Friday, Jan. 7, 2005 | 9:08 a.m.

In spite of what you hear on talk radio, the United States is stingy with humanitarian aid. The $15 million dollar initial offer for the tsunami disaster was small, and even the $350 million figure represents only a small percentage of our federal budget.

Of the 22 richest countries in the world, the United States gives the least, not only in percentage of budget but often in dollars given. This may be a blessing, as aid is often given as loans, which the poor countries that receive the loans can only repay by cutting the budgets for their social programs.

This does not mean that individual Americans are stingy. We may end up contributing more aid to tsunami victims through charities than our government contributes with tax dollars. Yet American taxpayers should share the world's anger with our government's stinginess.

Our new tax "relief" programs have done the same to our citizens. Our graduated tax system is being flattened and the estate tax has been removed, placing a larger share of the burden on the middle and lower classes, all of which helps to eliminate upward mobility. For this we get deficit spending on an obscene military budget, a unilateral war in Iraq and corporate welfare. One can hardly expect our government to be compassionate with the rest of the world when our own tax dollars are not directed to provide health care or Social Security support for our own people.

JERRY BITTS