Bush accused of short-changing overseas spending
Bush accused of short-changing overseas spending
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: June 27 2006 18:45 | Last updated: June 27 2006 18:45
The Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress were on Tuesday accused of short-changing US spending overseas at a time when philanthropists are scaling new heights in their commitment.
Put in perspective, the $31bn donation announced this week by Warren Buffett, the investment guru, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation exceeds all US government spending on foreign development and humanitarian assistance, Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state, pointed out on Tuesday.
President George W. Bush has requested $23.7bn for the entire US federal Foreign Operations budget for 2007, an increase of some 15 per cent over the current year, but Congress is threatening to cut that back. The Senate appropriations committee is expected to trim spending by some $2bn when it meets tomorrow. The House has already shifted some $2bn to domestic spending.
The annual overseas development assistance component of the US federal budget could actually be overtaken by the total spending of the Gates Foundation. Some development analysts fear that a huge boost in funding by philanthropists will encourage some in Congress to reduce government spending even more.
Ms Albright, joined by Colin Powell, her successor until last year, and Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, the second highest ranking US officer, was speaking at a conference hosted by the US Global Leadership Campaign, a business-NGO alliance campaigning for greater US spending abroad.
Mr Powell rebuked Congress for cutting spending. “This is not the place to cut. This is the place to invest,” the former general said. “The American people would be well served by a solid investment in the foreign affairs programme,” he said.
Admiral Giambastiani, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, criticised members of Congress for “earmarking” spending to please their constituencies.
Ms Albright regretted that polls showed many Americans believed that some 25 per cent of the budget went on foreign spending – “aid for corrupt dictators like snow ploughs to Nigeria” – when in fact overseas spending amounted to only about 1.0 per cent of the total federal budget of $2.7 trillion.
She suggested that foreign spending be called “national security support” in order to make it sound more appealing to the American public. She also acknowledged that Americans had a valid argument in calling for more domestic and less foreign spending after such catastrophes as Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans last August.
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: June 27 2006 18:45 | Last updated: June 27 2006 18:45
The Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress were on Tuesday accused of short-changing US spending overseas at a time when philanthropists are scaling new heights in their commitment.
Put in perspective, the $31bn donation announced this week by Warren Buffett, the investment guru, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation exceeds all US government spending on foreign development and humanitarian assistance, Madeleine Albright, the former US secretary of state, pointed out on Tuesday.
President George W. Bush has requested $23.7bn for the entire US federal Foreign Operations budget for 2007, an increase of some 15 per cent over the current year, but Congress is threatening to cut that back. The Senate appropriations committee is expected to trim spending by some $2bn when it meets tomorrow. The House has already shifted some $2bn to domestic spending.
The annual overseas development assistance component of the US federal budget could actually be overtaken by the total spending of the Gates Foundation. Some development analysts fear that a huge boost in funding by philanthropists will encourage some in Congress to reduce government spending even more.
Ms Albright, joined by Colin Powell, her successor until last year, and Admiral Edmund Giambastiani, the second highest ranking US officer, was speaking at a conference hosted by the US Global Leadership Campaign, a business-NGO alliance campaigning for greater US spending abroad.
Mr Powell rebuked Congress for cutting spending. “This is not the place to cut. This is the place to invest,” the former general said. “The American people would be well served by a solid investment in the foreign affairs programme,” he said.
Admiral Giambastiani, vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, criticised members of Congress for “earmarking” spending to please their constituencies.
Ms Albright regretted that polls showed many Americans believed that some 25 per cent of the budget went on foreign spending – “aid for corrupt dictators like snow ploughs to Nigeria” – when in fact overseas spending amounted to only about 1.0 per cent of the total federal budget of $2.7 trillion.
She suggested that foreign spending be called “national security support” in order to make it sound more appealing to the American public. She also acknowledged that Americans had a valid argument in calling for more domestic and less foreign spending after such catastrophes as Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans last August.
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