<http://www.chicago.tribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-0102060207,F F.html> AMERICANS STRONGLY SUPPORT FOREIGN AID HUNGER ESPECIALLY MOVING, POLL FINDS
By R.C. Longworth Tribune Staff Writer February 6, 2001 Americans overwhelmingly support foreign aid in principle and strong majorities want to increase it to feed the hungry, help women and children, aid Africa and promote the Peace Corps, a new opinion poll said Monday.
This broad support was surprising because the survey indicated that most Americans think the United States spends 20 times more on foreign aid than it does.
The poll also found strong support for aid to poor countries to help them educate students and develop their economies. But most of those questioned oppose aid given for strategic reasons, especially to Israel and Egypt, at present the two biggest recipients of U.S. aid.
The poll was conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. The program is best-known for a 1997 poll that showed that Washington insiders--in the White House, Congress and the press--vastly underestimated the popular support among Americans for an active U.S. foreign policy.
The new poll had much the same message: Americans favor foreign aid, especially for humanitarian reasons, to a greater extent than most Washington policymakers think.
Of those surveyed, 83 percent said they felt the United States should join an international program to cut world hunger in half by 2015, and 75 percent would be willing to pay an extra $50 in taxes per year to achieve this.
Aid to Africa was supported by 81 percent who wanted either to maintain it or increase it. Those polled also supported aid in other categories:
- Reducing hunger and disease in poor countries, 77 percent.
- Paying for child survival programs, 76 percent.
- Educating and training people in poor countries, 67 percent.
- Supporting the Peace Corps, 64 percent.
- Helping women and girls in poor countries, 61 percent.
There also was broad, if less vigorous, support for aid that discourages nations from developing nuclear weapons and aid to help farmers in Colombia switch from growing illegal plants that are made into drugs to growing legal crops.
Only 27 percent backed aid to Israel and Egypt, about the same percent as those who like military aid in general.
The poll asked what percentage of the federal budget goes for foreign aid. The median guess was 20 percent. Even those with postgraduate degrees guessed 8 percent. Most thought the U.S. spends more on foreign aid than on Medicare or even national defense.
In fact, the federal budget devotes 1 percent to foreign aid, far less than most other programs, including Medicare and defense.
Another unexpected finding was that about half of those polled believed that most aid ends up in the pockets of corrupt foreign officials.
Even with this inflated impression and cynical attitude, most of those polled felt the U.S. should give more, especially to hunger and humanitarian causes.
"What is striking is the resilience of public support for foreign aid," said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes. "Hunger particularly is something that really moves Americans," he said. "Reducing hunger is the purpose for foreign aid that they find most compelling."
Of those polled, 81 percent favored channeling aid through private charitable organizations or other direct means rather than through governments, apparently because they believe corrupt officials steal most of the money.
A 1995 poll on foreign aid by the same group showed support for humanitarian foreign aid coupled with a skepticism toward foreign aid in general. In that poll, 64 percent felt foreign aid should be reduced, possibly because respondents then also overestimated its size.
The latest poll, while finding the overestimation to be just as large, showed that 40 percent wanted to cut aid in general. Asked how much of the federal budget should go to aid, the median answer was 10 percent--about 10 times the true figure.