Foreign Aid

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WOW!

Critical Analysis

1. According to the data from the graph above, what portion of the federal budget does the US spend on international development and humanitarian assistance (foreign aid)?

2. What's the big story here?

3. Why do you think the U.S. spends this portion of its budget on foreign aid?

4. What is one consequence of spending this portion of our budget on foreign aid?

5. Foreign aid is money, technical assistance, and commodities that the United States provides to other countries in support of a common interest of the U.S. and that country. What countries do you think got the most of this foreign aid as of 2019? (Note: Ukraine is not even on this list of top foreign aid recipients for 2019, in 2022 it will likely be a top recipient. See visual below).*

6. What % of our budget do you think the average American thinks we spend on foreign aid?**

7. Why do you think there's such a huge divide in what Americans think we spend and what we actually spend?

8. What portion of US GDP (our national income) do you think we spend on foreign aid?***

9. Identify three members of the US government who play a major role in formulating foreign aid spending and describe their role.

10. Explain the opinion the following would probably have regarding foreign aid:

• Traditional US conservative

• Traditional US liberal

• Anti-Federalist

• Staunch Trump supporter

• Staunch Biden supporter

Learning Extension

The U.S. federal government has put together a great interactive website with all the information you could even need about U.S. foreign assistance.

I've put together an entire fantabulous lesson on foreign aid. Check it out and play our foreign aid party game at home!

Action Extension

Take our foreign aid quiz and then share it with your friends/fans/followers on facebook, Twitter, Myspace (kidding), Snapchat, TikTok, or Instagram. After your "friends" answer what portion of the US budget they think we spend on foreign aid, share the actual amount and watch them freak out! Share your results in class or online.

Create your survey with SurveyMonkey

Visual Extension*

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