For the morons:

Aid to foreign countries that are developing/poor should be considered an investment.

By providing aid it give the US an opportunity to influence said country-there are 2 ways to look at that one good one bad, good=we are spreading our values, bad=we are blackmailing those countries into supporting us.

But, either way you look at it, it provides America with influence.

Influence that reveals itself in many ways:

1. beneficial trade agreements
2. opportunities to develop economic resources for our use
3. opportunities for basing US military personnel for our strategic use
4. security arrangements that allow us to expand our influence into insecure nations like Somalia

The $50 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to what we get back in return

If we stop that aid, er, WHEN we stop that aid, those developing nations will turn elsewhere for that investment-notably China, India, Brazil and Russia

Those nations' influence and the benefits accrued therefrom will transfer to those nations.

This has been happening for decades now. While we are bombing countries and stopping aid China has been building ports and developing resources.

This is an INCREDIBLY bad idea.`