Besides NPR obviously having an American bias, I tried to find a funding source breakdown. Best I could find was from wikipedia:

"ESA is contributing about €300 million, including the launch. The Canadian Space Agency pledged $39 million Canadian in 2007"

Seems ESA contributed about 3%, and CSA .3%. It may just be a biases ommision, but I also wouldnt be surprised if theres some salty feeling about who actually paid for the telescope.