What is most perplexing about the administration's combined 31.7
percent gutting of international affairs spending--as Secretary Defense
Mattis has said: If you don't fund the State Department Diplomacy
Center, you had
better give the Defense Department more bullets and soldiers. This is
counterproductive to making the world a safer place for America. America is safer when the United States helps feed millions of
starving people in Africa and the Middle East, helps Europe defend its
democratic institutions from Russia interference, helps support
countries and international organizations caring for vulnerable refugee
populations, helps train farmers and other technical workers, helps
lead the world in fighting climate change and promoting global health,
and helps fund programs to protect human rights and promote democracy. In each of these areas, the administration has taken a penny-wise and
pound-foolish approach that will cost lives abroad and endanger
Americans here at home. Each of the programs I mentioned are either eliminated or there are
significant cuts, making it impossible for our dedicated Foreign
Service officers to carry out the critically important missions they
undertake.