NPR poll: Americans favour Pakistan aid freeze

Most in the US frustrated with their own govt, calling Congress ‘stupid’.

WASHINGTON:

An astounding 99% of Americans want all forms of US financial aid to Pakistan – humanitarian, development and military – to be stopped, according to a poll conducted by National Public Radio, an American broadcaster.

NPR’s National Desk Senior Business News Editor Marilyn Geewax said that American sentiment had changed dramatically after Osama bin Laden had been found in Pakistan. She said that an average American believed that Pakistani officials had been aware of Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad and had not done anything about it.

“They are bitter and remember the 3,000-plus lives that had been taken away in 9/11. They are not sympathetic anymore and it is difficult to convince them otherwise. Moreover, the US debt crises have called for drastic cutbacks. US citizens call for these cutbacks to include a halt to aid to Pakistan,” she said.

As upset as Americans are with Pakistan, they seem to be almost equally frustrated with their own government. Nearly 77% of Americans believe that decisions about fiscal matters in the United States – including the recent debate over the debt ceiling – was not made maturely.

A majority of listeners of NPR – which has an estimated weekly audience of 32 million – felt that the US Congress had been extremely ‘stupid’ in dealing with the situation. Most also described themselves as ‘fed up’ with their government.

The US Senate passed a deficit-reduction package topping $2 trillion on Tuesday, just hours before the nation could have run out of money to pay its bills. If the debt ceiling had not been increased before the end of Tuesday, Americans could have faced rapidly rising interest rates, a falling dollar and shakier financial markets, among other problems.

Almost 99% of Americans were critical of the fact that the government had let the matter go on for as long as it did, while a conclusion could have been reached much earlier.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2011.