Affording Foreign Policy: The Problem Is Not Wallet, but Will

In the spring of 1993, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Peter Tarnoff explained to a group of reporters that America's quiescent approach to the war in Bosnia would exemplify U.S. foreign policy in the post--Cold War era because "we certainly don't have the money" to tackle many international crises. These remarks were later disavowed by Clinton administration spokesmen, but Tarnoff had done nothing more than voice the conventional wisdom established as soon as the Cold War ended. Most often it is said that the United States no longer has the resources that it once devoted to foreign policy. But how can this be? America is the richest country the world has ever known, and its resources have been expanding.

There is no resource problem; there is a budget problem based on the American public's failure to reconcile its aversion to taxes with its appetite for benefits. Opinion polls consistently show that Americans prefer Republicans on taxes (to keep them low) and Democrats on benefits (to keep them high). Of course, Americans would rather not admit that federal budget woes arise from greed; better to blame generosity. Thus polls show that when Americans are asked to estimate the share of the budget devoted to foreign aid, the median response is 15 percent. When they are asked to suggest a proper amount, the median is 5 percent. There is a method in this madness: if foreign aid did consume 15 percent and was cut to 5, that would mean cutting the budget by 10 percent, which for now would almost bring it into balance.

Unfortunately, the share actually spent on U.S. foreign aid amounts to less than one percent; zeroing it out would scarcely dent the deficit. Indeed, the elimination of all spending related to foreign policy, even including the entire defense budget, would not balance the U.S. budget for long--not, that is, if entitlement spending continues on its recent trajectory.

THE GREAT MAW