AMERICA SPENDS BILLIONS OVERSEAS--BUT MAINLY IN MILITARY AID, NOT DEVELOPMENT : Let Them Eat Guns

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According to a recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations, "The average American believes we spend 18 percent of the federal budget on foreign affairs, while thinking we should spend only 6 percent. In reality, foreign affairs spending, the bully pulpit of America's strength overseas, is now only 1 percent of the federal budget--a little more than one penny of every federal tax dollar."

This argument has been the centerpiece of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's campaign for more funds for international activities. "That 1 percent," she argues, "may well determine 50 percent of the history that is written about the era." But although the Secretary's cause is a good one, her argument is profoundly misleading, for it excludes the bulk of US international spending--the military budget. Americans have it about right when the military is included; we spend about 17 percent of our total budget on national security and international activities, with the military consuming 95 percent of the total sum. Indeed, in the coming year, the military will capture more than half the entire federal discretionary budget--money for everything the government does from the FBI to Head Start--excluding only mandatory spending (primarily, interest on the national debt and entitlements like Social Security and Medicare).

Spending on international affairs other than the military, when measured in constant dollars, has been declining steadily since 1980. From 1992 through 1997, funding dropped an average of about 6 percent annually. Under the projected balanced-budget agreements, this nonmilitary funding is …