Given The Current Deficit Crisis, Should Foreign Aid Be Cut? >
U.S. Must Be More Selective Where It Sends Foreign Aid
The United States needs to stay engaged in foreign affairs, but it must choose carefully where it spends its dollars
October 11, 2011
About Steve Chabot:
Congressman Steve Chabot has served as Congressman in Ohio's First Congressional District for fifteen years. Prior to his election to Congress in 1994, Chabot served on Cincinnati City Council and the Hamilton County Commission for four years on each body. Chabot currently serves on the Committee on the Judiciary, the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Committee on Small Business.
It is not a convenient time to be having a recession. While responsible members of Congress attempt to help mitigate our economic turmoil, promote job growth, and tackle a national debt of staggering proportions, the world has kept on changing. For the past 10 months, we have witnessed unprecedented changes throughout the Middle East and North Africa. The peaceful protests that began at the end of last year continue to shake the region to its core. The power structures that have defined the region for decades continue to crumble as protestors take to the streets by the thousands. And although it is not yet clear what the end result will be, there can be no doubt that the Middle East that emerges from the current turmoil will be vastly different from the one we have known for decades.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
There can be no question that the United States not only must stay engaged, but must in fact be more engaged than ever. As the power structures of the Middle East are being torn down and rebuilt, it is critical that we ensure that our vital national interests in the region—including national security—do not suffer. But fiscal solvency is also a vital national concern, and one that responsible lawmakers must attend to. The result is that we must now do more with less. We can neither afford—literally—to spend recklessly nor can we afford to retreat.
As a Member of Congress it is my duty to ensure that when taxpayer dollars are spent, they are spent appropriately. Even more than in the past, we must now scrutinize each and every foreign aid program to ensure that only those most essential to advancing our interests and those of our allies are implemented. Governing is about prioritizing and choosing and that is exactly what my colleagues and I—and the Obama administration—must now do.
- View photos of unrest in Libya.
- Read more about the deficit and national debt.
- See a slide show of 5 bright spots in the U.S. economy.
- Other Arguments
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#18724
Yes — American taxpayers should not pay for the defense of other countries
JUSTIN LOGAN, Director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute
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#26919
Yes — Cutting foreign aid is inevitable but needs to be done selectively
JOHN NORRIS, Executive Director of the Sustainable Security and Peacebuilding Initiative at the Center for American Progress
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#44830
Yes — Overseas assistance more effective in hands of U.S. businesses and philanthropists
JAMES JAY CARAFANO, Director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation
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#54166
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#64066
No — Cutting foreign aid will not make a dent in the federal budget deficit
ANDREW NATSIOS, Professor at Georgetown University
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#73261
No — Foreign aid is one of the United States' most cost-effective and life-saving humanitarian efforts
BOB ZACHRITZ, Advocate for World Vision
