The Hill News

My apologies to Marie Antoinette.  The much-maligned queen may never have actually dismissed her starving people with the callous phrase that they “eat cake,” but the leading Republican candidates for president did tell the world live on television to expect nothing further from the United States of America.  Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich and their fellow candidates racing to the bottom of American generosity have declared that eliminating foreign aid â€" “starting from zero” â€" will be the central tenet of their foreign policy.
 
In addition to leaving hundreds of millions of people without lifesaving humanitarian assistance, “zeroing out” foreign assistance betrays some of our key allies like Israel, with whom we have existing agreements and essential partnerships.  Far from plying the world with expensive cake, American foreign assistance is vital to our national security, essential to our moral standing in the world, and greatly en! hances our power and influence.  At less than one percent of the federal budget foreign aid costs far less than the outlandish tax cuts for the wealthy proposed by these same candidates. 

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