"Less than 1 percent of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid. President Bush’s 2003 budget proposes about $11.4 billion in economic assistance and about $4.3 billion for peacekeeping operations and to finance, train, and educate foreign armed forces." from this source.

So you can't argue that our peace-keeping aid and military naid outside of europe makes up for the defecit.

from the same source:

"In raw dollars, however, the United States is now the world’s top donor of economic aid, although for more than a decade it was second to Japan, which is far smaller and has been beset by economic woes. In 2001, the United States gave $10.9 billion, Japan $9.7 billion, Germany $4.9 billion, the United Kingdom $4.7 billion, and France $4.3 billion. "

Our economy is massive compared to the UK, and they spend 4.7bln! France? what position are they? Something like 5th or 6th largest world economy?

Davin