@evan It's not just about government. Americans in general are slow to realise that there are useful things they could learn from elsewhere in the world. In my own field, for instance, American engineers and contractors are aware of the state-of-the-art in California, but are mostly unaware of lessons from high speed rail in Catalonia.
The US has many virtues, but humility is not really one of them. We all have things we can learn from others.