There's no way America, AKA, George Bush, can take a step back and not give at least $350 million to these people. Supposedly Americas role is to intervene in poor countries, help with the relief, and promote or save democracy from "evil do-ers on the axis of evil." Well, one can argue that if Bush can spend BILLIONS of dollars on his Iraqi war because he's stepping in, and trying to help out those poor people, HE HAS to step in with this tsuinami relief or he's a hipocrit.
Sure, $350 million is a lot of money, but compared to the budget, it's a fucking dent in the governments armor. If he didn't contribute then what kind of president is he to say he's going to step into bad situations in countries that cant fend for themselves, and try and help them out - AKA - Vietnam, Kosovo, Iraq. Ofcourse, this is a natural disaster and no one could have prevented the massive and widespread damage it caused, but America has taken this role of 'stepping up' and intervening in places they shouldnt have way too often to take a backseat look over this disaster. Bush contributing millions of dollars was inevitable no matter what you say or else his reputation would been shitted on, more than it is now.