US aid to Indonesia unharmed by crisis (this is bizarre!)

There's a theory that the US buys far more than $200 million in influence when it spends $200 million in foreign aid. I don't subscribe to this theory. Government officials and private citizens in nations like Indonesia are perfectly aware that the US has accumulated a national debt on a scale without any precedent in human history. They know that the US must borrow vast sums every year just to continue government operations.

Giving Indonesia a few hundred million we had to borrow is going to generate about as much prestige and influence as some broke sugar daddy getting a $100 cash advance on his last credit card to give to his gold-digger.

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