Pope challenges Americans to rise to ideals

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 27, 1995

During Pope John Paul II's visit to the United States earlier this month, he repeatedly called upon traditional American generosity, asking that the nation live up to its ideals, especially when it comes to assisting the neediest, both at home and abroad.

In this light, it is interesting to note that Americans think their government is more generous in providing assistance to the needy than it actually is. Take, for example, foreign aid. A survey conducted earlier this year by two independent policy centers - the University of Maryland Center for International and Security Studies and the Center for the Study of Policy Attitudes - found that Americans were wildly off the mark in guessing how much our nation spends on foreign aid.

Among those surveyed, 15 percent was the median figure given when asked about how much of the budget went to foreign aid.

The accurate figure, of course, is less than 1 percent of the federal budget - and this includes military and nonmilitary aid combined - or about #13 billion a year. Only about half this figure goes to human development programs relating to health, family planning and economic self-help; nearly 40 percent goes to two nations, Egypt and Israel.

When asked what would be an "appropriate" expenditure for such aid, respondents placed the percent-age at about 5 percent of the budget - or about five times what is actually spent now.

Measured another way, the United States devotes only .15 of its per capita gross domestic product to foreign aid, far less than all other industrial countries. And the figure has been steadily declining in recent years.

According to the Agency for International Development, about $44 of taxes paid annually by an average American family would go to foreign aid. In Denmark, the equivalent figure would be $900.

Of course, polls reveal similar U.S. attitudes when it comes to the percentage taxpayers think is going to support welfare programs. Total federal spending on such programs - American Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, Medicaid for AFDC recipients, and so forth - equals 6 percent of all federal entitlement spending, or only 3 to 4 percent of the total federal budget. AFDC, a target of the right, consumes approximately 1 percent of the $1.5 trillion federal budget.

These figures are important to keep in mind as Congress negotiates welfare cuts for the poor at a time when corporate profits are soaring, aided by massive government assistance, viewed as stimulants, not "welfare." One can only hope the nation will one day wake up to the fact that the minority superrich, some 2 to 5 percent of the populance, are swimming in corporate assistance, while the poor, increasingly the rest of us, are being told their government is bankrupt and must cut all assistance.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group, recently reported: "The average income of the bottom 80 percent of the population is well below what it was in 1989 and ... only the top fifth of the recession."

Responding to the pope's plea, we all need to examine our hearts, and most of us can be more generous. But larger social and economic forces are causing the disparities. Our corporate generated world economy must find the means to adjust itself or it must be adjusted.

The injustices are intolerable and, unattended, can only lead to serious social unrest.