• Fact: The United States donates more than any other country in Official Development Assistance, to the tune of $16 billion. That is up from $10 billion in 2000. For fiscal 2006, Mr. Bush has requested an additional $3 billion. American increases in official development assistance over the period of Mr. Bush's presidency have far outpaced those of the European Union.
• Fact: The United States is the largest single donor to international organizations, paying $362 million (or 22 percent) of the U.N. budget. We contribute more than $1 billion to the World Food Program. We contributed $194 (or 19 percent) to the U.N. Development Program and $288 million to the U.N. Children's Fund.
• Fact: The U.S. government counts less than half of its foreign assistance as development aid. Excluded is aid to Israel, to the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries, peacekeeping and military aid, educational and cultural exchanges, the National Endowment of Democracy, educational and cultural exchanges, funding to the Export-Import Bank, the Inter-American-Foundation, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. All of this amounted to $12.7 billion in 2002.
• Fact: The United States has a great tradition of private giving, unequalled in most of the other countries with whom we are regularly compared. In 2004, private assistance flowing from the United States totaled $48 billion. This includes charity from private foundations, corporations, colleges and universities, religious organizations and NGOs, as well as individuals. It also includes personal remittances, about $28 billion. The U.S. government, of course, has no role in directing remittances, but facilitates these transactions through immigration and commerce legislation.
• Fact: Americans donated nearly $700 million in tsunami relief to the stricken people of the Indian Ocean.
In total flows of international aid, the United States far and away leads the world. It is only in terms of an arbitrary percentage of GNP that our numbers look inadequate. Americans have nothing to apologize for when it comes to giving.