President Obama Donates To Help Starving Children

The president has approved $105 million in new aid to help starving children in Somalia because of the drought in Africa. That is, he donated taxpayer money. I don’t remember him asking me if that was how I wanted my tax dollars spent. Not sure if he donated any of his own money. Perhaps he did. But I suspect that it would be reported everywhere in the news if he actually gave some of his own money.

So far this year, the United States has sent about $565 million in aid to Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. Should individual Americans freely donate money for drought relief? That is an individual decision. Should the U.S. government forcibly donate taxpayer money? I have answered that here and here.

On the U.S. government as partly responsible for these starving children in Africa, see Joanne Mariner.

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3:32 pm on August 9, 2011