Kerry Defends Foreign Aid Expenses
Says diplomatic spending reduces need for later military spending, which would be nice if that's what actually happened
America's duties and ambitions overseas are too important to shortchange, even in a time of tight budgets, new Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Wednesday.
"In today's global world, there is no longer anything foreign about foreign policy," Kerry argued in an unusual first address for a U.S. secretary of state.
Politicians too easily make a bogeyman of American foreign aid, said Kerry, who was a politician for more than three decades, while the payoffs of engagement abroad are badly misjudged by many ordinary Americans.
"I can tell you that nothing gets a crowd clapping faster than to say: 'I'm going to Washington to get them to stop spending all that money over there,' " Kerry said.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?