Yesterday, President Obama held the first-ever Twitter Town Hall at the White House. A questioner asked about American investments abroad and the President offered a strong defense for U.S. global leadership. He noted that despite common misperceptions about how much we spend on the International Affairs Budget, it is, in actuality, a very small percentage of federal spending. President Obama said this small investment can be a “force multiplier” in spreading America’s influence, and that it delivers a big security benefit for a relatively small amount of money.

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Development Reform: A New Chance for Congress to Lead (ModernizeAid, Former Congressman and Ambassador Mark Green)

The loss of Congressional leaders is certainly lamentable, but it also gives rise to new leaders and new leadership opportunities. The relative lack of experience in development among newer policymakers is compensated by the wealth of experience that many of them have from beyond the Beltway . . .from the private sector and from other walks of life.  This is the chance for those fresh eyes and fresh voices to make a difference and to take America’s leadership in international development to new levels.

The Only Reform That Will Restrain Spending (Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Olympia Snowe and Jim DeMint)

Republicans in the Senate are united in our concern about our nation’s fiscal future. Before we consider saddling our children with even more debt, we must enact significant spending cuts and enforceable caps on future spending. For the long term, to prevent both this Congress and its successors from hijacking the promise of American prosperity, we also need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, like the one we and all 47 Senate Republicans have introduced.

Smart Power

Clinton launches TechGirls for young Muslims (UPI, Hannah G. Vickers)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the launch of TechGirls, an educational initiative for girls from Muslim countries interested in technology. Clinton made the announcement at the closing luncheon honoring the first class of participants from TechWomen, a public-private partnership that brought emerging female leaders in technical fields from predominately Muslim countries to the United States for one month.

Obama defends US foreign aid (Business Standard, Press Trust of India—Washington)

President Barack Obama has defended US foreign assistance, saying America’s overseas aid is only about 1% of its federal budget, but the return on this investment is much higher. Obama argued that to be a leader in the world, to have influence, to help stabilize countries and create opportunity for people so that they don’t breed terrorists or create huge refugee flows and so forth, it’s smart for the United States to make a very modest investment in foreign aid.

Politics/Foreign Policy

Obama expected to press for bigger deal on debt with leaders (The Hill, Ian Swanson)

President Obama is expected to press congressional leaders at a White House meeting on Thursday to double down and push for a much larger deficit-reduction package than initially anticipated. Obama, who earlier this week told lawmakers they faced a “unique opportunity” with talks to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit, may ask leaders at the White House to embrace the goal of reducing the deficit by as much as $4 trillion over the next decade, according to several reports.

Defense spending faces $700 billion cut (The Hill, John T. Bennett)

Obama directed the Defense Department and other national-security agencies to slash $400 billion by 2023. But in the closed-door talks to raise the debt ceiling, larger Pentagon funding cuts have been seriously discussed, several sources said, putting the number between $600 billion and $700 billion over a decade. A final decision has yet to be made, but the sources said negotiators have not ruled out making deeper cuts than Obama planned.