With Americans Like Carter, Who Needs Americans?

(Via Roth Report.) Jimmy Carter...can he bash America any more? His rhetoric is starting to sound downright Kennedy-Boxer-Dean-Moore-esque.

In a speech to a human rights conference in Atlanta, former (un)American President Carter said, "Unfortunately, in the rich countries like ours, we really don't give a damn [about poor nations]." This is pathetic and idiotic. How could this guy have been elected in 1976? Even if Carter has criticisms of U.S. donations, he makes statements like this and loses any shred of credibility he might have had.

Even on substance, however, I disagree with Carter's assertion that the U.S. is not generous simply because the government donates less as a % of GDP to developing nations. First, this does not include private donations, which dwarfs every other country (as evidenced by our tsunami relief aid). Second, and more importantly, we have been donating several percentage points of our GDP every year since World War II to protect democracies around the world. Perhaps if the Europeans stepped up someday to provide security for themselves, we could put that money to other use.