The Miami Herald: Wrong time to cut foreign aid

I thank Andres Oppenheimer for his Feb. 13 column, Aid cuts could be diplomatic suicide. We must
change the misleading and negative image of U.S. foreign assistance promoted by some members of
Congress and educate Americans about the vital role of international aid and diplomacy in making the
world a healthier, safer place.
Investing in democracy, development and diplomacy is essential for our national security and directly
serves our domestic economic interests. America’s fastest-growing markets are in developing countries.
Our foreign aid will fuel American jobs to through trade and new markets.
We have to look no further than the events unfolding around the Mideast to conclude that now is not the
time to reduce our long-standing leadership in diplomacy and international development. We have
indisputable statistical proof that our foreign assistance is significantly improving living conditions around
the world, engendering good will toward the United States. In September 2002, President Bush released
his National Security Strategy, for elevating global development as the third pillar of U.S. national security
along with defense and diplomacy; some call this smart power.
One of the best ways to fight terrorism and promote U.S. leadership is through the goals of the National
Security Strategy and by fully funding the programs and initiatives that promote economic growth and
poverty reduction. Examples include the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the global
immunization program by the GAVI Alliance, the Global Fund to end AIDS, TB and Malaria, President
Bush's Malaria Initiative, Child Survival, Feed the Future and other efforts that ease misery among the
world’s most vulnerable, while promoting democratization and free-market economies.
So what do we make of the conservative cry to cut the entire U.S. foreign aid budget? While Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, is understandably alarmed by the budget deficit, are we then to embrace
isolationism and leave our heirs a world in which the United States has been reduced to the sidelines in
world affairs? I urge Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and other members
of Congress, not to be penny wise and pound foolish.
Betsy Suero Skipp, MIAMI