The following is part of a letter I recently received from my Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR).
Dear Ms. Stanton:
Thanks for your message expressing concerns about funding for international HIV/AIDS and anti-poverty programs in 2007. I appreciate hearing from you…
Regarding funding for international HIV/AIDS programs, I have tried for years to redirect U.S. foreign assistance away from military aid and toward humanitarian assistance. As you know, many nations are witnessing the destruction of entire generations of their citizens through disease epidemics, poverty, famine, and poor education. The U.S. should assist in combating such problems.
Currently, our foreign aid priorities are awful. Around one-quarter to one-third of the money the U.S. will spend on foreign aid this year will go toward military, not humanitarian, assistance. It’s hard to see how selling an F-16 fighter aircraft to an impoverished nation will assist in treating one AIDS victim, providing a single meal, or educating one child.
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04-02-2007 |
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