American families could be making better use of the funds.
President Trump has requested $25.6 billion for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or $312 per American family — a 28% reduction from 2017.
The Global Climate Change Initiative and the Green Climate Fund are on the chopping block, with cuts suggested for the United Nations, development organizations and educational exchange programs. The president would shift foreign military assistance grants to loans and end overlapping peacekeeping programs.
These cuts are, if anything, too small. President Obama’s last budget spends 110 pages describing State Department expenditures without a cost-benefit analysis. We are left to guess about the benefit of these vast sums.
Many of these programs could be privately funded. We do not need State Department educational exchange programs when foreign students are....
Read the entire piece here in USA Today
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Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow and director of Economics21. She also served on the transition team for President Donald Trump. Follow her on Twitter here.
This piece originally appeared in USA Today