The International Affairs Budget needs to be protected, and here's why.
Before I dive into why it needs to be protected, I need to establish what this budget covers. According to Chairman John Yarmuth, Function 150 deals with international affairs. Inside Function 150, within the discretionary budget, consist of two categories: 1. International development and humanitarian assistance, and 2. International security assistance Both of those combined have a spending of $57 billion (in 2019). The overall fiscal federal budget for 2019 was $4.4 trillion. That means less than 1% of the United States overall budget was spent on international affairs. Whats shocking is the idea that the International Affairs Budget covers programs that are absolutely necessary for development abroad. Some of these programs include: - fighting deadly diseases (i.e. HIV, malaria) - humanitarian relief during natural disasters - educating children, especially more girls - providing clean water The list goes on... The United States has the capabilities of spreading our wealth in knowledge and power to other countries. If you're thinking that we need to focus on our own country's poverty, don't worry we have a separate domestic budget for that. The idea I'm trying to portray is this: we need to protect whatever funding we have left for international affairs. Once that budget is protected we need to work on increasing it, so we can continue to help others in need. For now, Kristina Borgen Project Ambassador Sources: https://budget.house.gov/focus-function-150-international-affairs-0 https://www.cbo.gov/publication/55824 https://www.careaction.org/blog/what-exactly-does-international-affairs-budget-pay https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2019011100
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AuthorA college student trying to make a difference by fighting to end extreme poverty. Archives
April 2020
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