One of my assigned papers this term concerns the federal deficit (i.e., how to reduce it). Among myriad topics that confuse me, I am trying to wrap my head around why the federal government sends humanitarian aid to countries to whom we are already indebted.

For example, the U.S. provided $4.9 million in humanitarian and defense aid to China after the earthquake in 2008. Yet, China holds $1,154,700,000,000 in U.S. Treasury securities (i.e., our debt), as of January 2011. Instead of sending cash aid, why didn’t we just buy back $5 million (I rounded up) worth of Treasury notes?

Not to make light of the recent earthquake & tsunami in Japan, but the same scenario holds true there. In a report issued yesterday by USAID, the U.S. already has $8 million earmarked for relief aid. That just accounts for humanitarian aid; it doesn’t include the Department of Defense, which already had boots on the ground in Japan and at sea. Japan ranks second only to China as a major foreign holder of treasury securities, with a whopping $885,900,000,000 of U.S. debt in its wallet.

If I borrowed $10 from a friend to, say, purchase a CD, then she would [rightly] expect me to pay her back. What if, three days later, a family member of hers died unexpectedly, so I bought $15 worth of groceries to make a condolence meal for her family? That would be very sweet of me, but I still owe her the $10 that I borrowed.

Perhaps it sounds heartless to translate that onto an international scale, but given our deplorable national debt situation, we need to forego the “meal” gift and square away the ten bucks, first.