From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv (615th day):
In yesterday’s issue of The Atlantic, there was an interesting article “Stop Asking Americans in Diners About Foreign Aid” by Ted Nichols. I want to share some quotes as a follow up on my yesterday’s post:
“First, foreign aid is about 1 percent of the U.S. budget, roughly $60 billion. Special appropriations to Ukraine have, over the course of 18 months, added up to about $75 billion, including both humanitarian aid and weapons. Israel—a far smaller country that has, over the past 70 years, cumulatively received more foreign aid from the United States than from any other country—usually gets about $3 billion, but Joe Biden now wants to add about $14 billion to that.
That’s a lot of money. To put it in perspective, however, Americans forked over about $181 billion annually on snacks, and $115 billion for beer last year…
… I know small-government conservatives will answer: It’s none of your damn business what Americans are spending their money on.
They’re right—up to a point. But we are, in theory, adults who can establish sensible priorities. We pay taxes so that the federal government can do things that no other level of government can achieve, and national security is one of them. Right now, the Russian army—the greatest threat to NATO in Europe—is taking immense losses on a foreign battlefield for a total investment that (as of this moment) is less than one-tenth of the amount we spend on defense in a single year…
Of course, we might repeat one more time that much of the food and weapons and other goods America sends to places like Israel and Ukraine are actually made by Americans. And yet many Republican leaders continue to talk about aid as if some State Department phantom in a trench coat meets the president of Ukraine or the prime minister of Israel in an alley and hands over a metal briefcase filled with neatly wrapped stacks of bills.
…We need to stop asking people in diners about foreign aid. Populists who demand that we rely on guidance from The People should remember that most Americans think foreign aid should be about 10 percent of the budget—a percentage those voters think would be a reduction but would actually be a massive increase (foreign aid is about 1%).”
Voice of Ukraine 
One response to “11/1/2023 – “…We need to stop asking people in diners about foreign aid…””
A year ago:
Voice-of-Ukraine.com
11/2/2022 – From Kyiv
From Maia Mikhaluk in Kyiv: 251st day of ruzzian invasion. Extended blackouts are now a part of daily reality. I am trying to sort through a mixture of feelings I experience while looking at the dark tall buildings with just a few windows here and there lit up with dim candle light. In this mixture there is a concern about the next four cold months, anger towards ruzzians, frustration that a terrorist who openly commits crimes daily and bragging about it can’t be called to justice, but rather gets invited to respectable international gatherings like G20, there is sadness over all the losses and destruction that Ukraine has already suffered, there is stubbornness and determination “we will make it!” Today there is also an overwhelming tiredness, but I am sure that part is temporary. We can’t afford to feel tired, not yet. As we know, everything will be well in the end. If it is not well, it’s not the end yet.
The river of light on the road from the cars’ headlights seems even brighter amidst hushed dark silhouettes of buildings lined up along the road. Kyiv is living and breathing and fighting and working.
Today there was news that 11,304 babies had been born in Kyiv in the past 251 days and 19,699 couples got married!
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