WBUR’s “Cognoscenti”: Why We Need Foreign Aid
Cognoscenti contributor Rich Barlow discusses President Trump’s proposed cuts to foreign aid; the history of foreign aid, focusing on the Marshall Plan undertaken by President Harry Truman after World War II; and the importance of foreign aid in today’s world. Barlow notes, “If Trump’s no Truman, he leads a citizenry famously unaware that we spend a trifle on foreign aid; the average answer in a 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation public opinion poll estimated the amount the United States spends abroad to be one-third of the federal budget. Actual amount: one percent. This ignorance abets Trump’s insistence that we’re overspending on others when it should be America First…” (6/21).