The World’s Most Generous Misers

The World’s Most Generous Misers: "The World’s Most Generous Misers
Tsunami reporting misrepresented U.S. giving

Extra! September/October 2005

In March 1997, a joint poll by the Washington Post, Harvard University and the Kaiser Family Foundation asked Americans which area of federal expenditure they thought was the largest. Was it Social Security (which actually constituted about a quarter of the budget)? Medicare? Military spending? Sixty-four percent of respondents said it was foreign aid—when in reality foreign aid made up only about 1 percent of total outlays (Washington Post, 3/29/97)."