Isolationism Is Not a Dirty Word

Imagine for a moment that you were a kind person and, when a friend asked if he could borrow some money, you readily agreed since times were good and you were flush with cash. Then word got around and before you knew it, dozens of people were all of a sudden your "friends" and asking you for money as well. Being a nice person, you acquiesced and loaned them money too. As time went on, some people came to you and said they couldn't pay you back, so you waived their obligations and basically just gave them the money. This eventually morphed into just giving everyone on the list your hard earned money. Eventually some of these "friends" started to imply that if they didn't get money there might be trouble. For instance, if you didn't give Bobby money, it was believed that he wouldn't have enough money to buy gas and therefore he would go rob somebody to get gas money. So you gave Bobby money, not just to help Bobby out, but to avoid any mayhem Bobby might create. People who were definitely not your friends caught onto this and made veiled threats that, if they didn't get some of your hard earned money as well, they would cause trouble, so they got put on the giveaway list too. Pretty soon you were giving money to hundreds of people, and the list included, incredibly, people who wanted to hurt you in one way or another. It also included people who claimed they needed the money to feed their families but who in fact just took the money and partied with it or bought fancy cars or houses.

You also decided that, because there were so many people and some weren't acting nice to some of your friends, and there were many others to whom you didn't lend money that didn't like you or your friends either, you would give some of your friends not just money for expenses, but weapons with which to defend themselves, until you were giving out basically double what you were giving before.

Now imagine that things got bad for you economically, and you didn't have any money or weapons to give all your "friends". However, many of them were still being very aggressive, and some were even threatening to hurt some of your other friends, or maybe even your family. So you decided that you would borrow money from various sources to keep your good will giving going, and some of the people you were borrowing money from were actually receiving money from you as well! While there were a few true friends you actually wanted to help, you now found yourself in a position where you were paying hundreds of people money, some because of veiled threats, others because of those threats and, still others who were receiving money and lending you money at the same time. Of course you also had to pay interest on the money you were lending because you were borrowing it from someone else, and this expense increased constantly. You did this until finally you went broke and then there was no money to give to anyone because you didn't have any and nobody would lend you money either.
A sad tale, isn't it? The saddest part of all is that this the state of foreign aid in the budget of the United States of America. Have you looked at a list of how much aid we give and to whom? You can find some good information at sites like: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/foreign_commerce_aid/foreign_aid.html. Just click on the excel or PDF sheets for the desired list. You'll probably notice we also give grants, so include this in your search. What you will find is that we give hundreds of millions to billions to countries which are either our direct competitors, or which are trying to undermine us in some way, or which will never think of giving the money to the people. And all of this money is borrowed, much of it from China. The world has got to be laughing at us. Did you know we also give foreign aid to China? It's crazy. We give money to Zimbabwe.

Do you think Robert Mugabe is going to let one cent slip through his fingers and into the people's hands?

The problem is that this situation has slowly accrued over time. This Congress or that Congress decided it was a good idea to add this or that country to the list. That's one of the problems anyway. The other is that we can't afford it. So here is my idea. I say we terminate all aid immediately, including military aid, then, in the same legislative session, create new bills for aid to those countries we truly feel it is in our interest to help. We need to really look at things like aid to Afghanistan and Iraq and see if we can figure out some other program, because there is an oligarchy enriching themselves in both countries. We give aid to Pakistan yet we launch drone strikes against them for harboring terrorists. We give aid to Russia although Mr. Putin actively opposes our interests on a regular basis.

Now many people will read this and call me isolationist. They will say it in such a way that it sounds like a bad word. However, I feel it's time for the United States to look after its' own interests first, especially in hard economic times. To borrow money which you then give to someone else is ludicrous. On top of that, I listened to George Carlin's "seven dirty words you can't say on TV" skit long ago and you know what? "Isolationism" isn't on there. It isn't a dirty word.