The U.S. is Stingy

Conservatives are going apeshit that a U.N. official called the United States 'stingy.' How dare that horrible institution dare to call the mighty United States stingy. We give more money than any country in the world. We gave out $2.4 billion in 2004 to humanitarian needs. We are morally superior.

Of course the conservatives ignore that we actually are ranked dead last in 2003 when you break down the donations per capita. They also fail to acknowledge that Bush has consistently reneged on pledged monies totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to humanitarian organizations both domestic and international.

The problem is that 3,000 people died on 9/11. We have spent $300 BILLION going after a country that had nothing to do with all those senseless American deaths. At least 120,000 people died in the Tsunami and we are sending a paltry $35 MILLION to the 12 countries that suffered more than 40 TIMES THE LOSS OF LIFE (80,000 as of press time). Terrorists be damned, we need to do more, immediately.

Bush's pending, ugh, Inaugural has a budget of $45 million. Sonni Efron of the LA Times href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-generous31dec31.story"target=_blank>uncovered U.S. government foreign aid in 2002 worked out to 13 cents per American a day. Private donations from U.S. citizens amounted to 5 cents per person a day. In contrast, 16 other countries, governments gave more. And in three other countries — Switzerland, Ireland and Norway — private citizens gave more. Who is the big Kahuna of of giving? The Norwegian government gave $1.02 per citizen a day while private giving came to 24 cents a day. FYI, the U.N. official who called the U.S. stingy was Norwegian.

All over the planet people think of us as a big bully. The glory days of WWII, where we truly helped save the planet from destruction, are long gone. Sure we wiped out the Soviet Union in the 80's, but at a horrible cost in the form of puppet regimes , multiple wars and wars by proxy all over the globe. We run roughshod over sovereign nations and people. We have no interest in democracy, we are only interested in making money and raping natural resources.

Here is a prime opportunity to regain some respect and the COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVES are worried about their taxes.

[Update 1/2/05 - Added link to Bush press conference to confirm numbers]

[Updated 12/31/04 - Changed 2003 ranking from 16th to dead last based on OECD stats and added the 2002 figures based on LA Times article]

[Sadly Updated 12/30/04 10pm PST - The death total went from 80,000 to 120,000)