Bruce Bartlett has a post explaining why the budget negotiations are futile.

American Public Opinion on Foreign Aid

Just based on what you know, please tell me your hunch about what percentage of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. You can answer in fractions of percentage points as well as whole percentage points.

Mean……………………………………………………………27%

Median………………………………………………………….25

What do you think would be an appropriate percentage of the federal budget to go to foreign aid, if any?

Mean……………………………………………………………13%

Median………………………………………………………….10

Source: WorldPublicOpinion.org (November 30. 2010)

Note: In fiscal year 2009, bilateral foreign aid totaled $22.5 billion: 0.6 percent of federal outlays.