Budget Time

I normally hate getting up early. I am just not a morning person. But I figured the opportunity to see fomer Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright in the same room would be worth it. This morning, the two of them were joined by Edmund Giambastiani, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs ...

I normally hate getting up early. I am just not a morning person. But I figured the opportunity to see fomer Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright in the same room would be worth it. This morning, the two of them were joined by Edmund Giambastiani, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a roundtable discussion held by The U.S. Global Leadership Campaign

I normally hate getting up early. I am just not a morning person. But I figured the opportunity to see fomer Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright in the same room would be worth it. This morning, the two of them were joined by Edmund Giambastiani, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a roundtable discussion held by The U.S. Global Leadership Campaign

The audience was comprised of representatives from humanitarian organizations, as well as large corporations such as Boeing, Caterpillar, and Lockheed Martin. In a wide-ranging discussion moderated by NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, the trio called for the U.S. to increase its international affairs budget. Powell noted that out of a $2.7 trillion budget, only about 1% was allotted for international affairs, and only 15% of that 1% goes to social needs. He said that there shouldn't be any competition between the State Department and the Pentagon over who gets more and that the two should work together to increase all kinds of foreign aid.

Powell reiterated some of the points he made in his FP article last year, "No Country Left Behind", saying that fighting poverty should be at the forefont of any security agenda. Albright went even further, saying that in order to make it more palatable to the American public, the term "foreign assistance" should now be substituted with the phrase "national security support." She also pointed out that yesterday, a single individual, Warren Buffett, pledged more money toward international aid than the entire international affairs budget for the U.S. government for FY2007. Given that it's an election year and the budget deficit is soaring, it's understandable that Americans are not thinking about giving money to foreigners. But Americans need to understand that the world's well-being affects their own well-being.

Christine Y. Chen is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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