President Obama on Foreign Aid
In a discussion on jobs and the economy in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Friday, President Obama sought to dispel misperceptions about how much the United States spends on foreign assistance. “A lot of people think if you just eliminated foreign aid we could balance the budget,” he said. In fact, “foreign aid accounts for about 1.5 to 2 percent of the budget.” Indeed, polls have repeatedly shown than Americans consistently overestimate the levels of foreign aid. As the President correctly pointed out, “We’re going to have to tackle the big stuff if we’re going to get our budget under control.” The Administration’s $58.5 billion FY11 International Affairs Budget request represents only 1.4% of the entire federal budget. Eliminating the International Affairs budget would barely even make a dent in the debt and would irrevocably damage our ability to address the growing global challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.
