the annual foreign-aid ripoff

That's the title of this piece by Ron Paul at LRC. It's a couple of days old, but I just got around to reading it and it's good. Here's an excerpt, but read the whole thing.

Why is foreign aid so bad? Isn’t it our obligation to help those less fortunate? What is not mentioned by proponents of foreign aid is that it very seldom gets to those who need it most. Foreign aid is the transfer of US dollars from the treasury of the United States to the governments of foreign countries. It is money that goes to help foreign elites, who in turn spend much of it on contracts with US corporations. This means US tax dollars ultimately go to well-connected US corporations operating overseas.