Mitt Romney - International Aid
Summary
Governor Romney has stated that foreign aid has a legitimate place in foreign policy for the US. He supports the use of foreign aid to influence policy for those nations.
Western Debate
In October of 2011, Governor Romney participated in the Western Debate. He was asked about international aid. He notes that foreign aid has a legitimate place in the foreign policy of the US. He points out that foreign aid to countries like Pakistan allow us to influence policy there and Afghanistan.
COOPER: Governor Romney, should foreign aid be eliminated?
ROMNEY: Foreign aid has several elements. One of those elements is defense, is to make sure that we are able to have the defense resources we want in certain places of the world. That probably ought to fall under the Department of Defense budget rather than a foreign aid budget.
Part of it is humanitarian aid around the world. I happen to think it doesn't make a lot of sense for us to borrow money from the Chinese to go give to another country for humanitarian aid. We ought to get the Chinese to take care of the people that are -- and think of that borrowed money on today (ph).
And finally there's a portion of our foreign aid that allows us to carry out our activities in the world such as what's happening in Pakistan where we're taking -- we're supplying our troops in Afghanistan through Pakistan.
But let me tell you: We're spending more on foreign aid than we ought to be spending. And Congressman Paul asked, is there a place we can cut the budget? Let me tell you where we cut the budget. Discretionary accounts you bring back to 2008 level. We get rid of Obamacare. Number three, we take Medicaid, turn it back to the states, grow it at only 1 percent to 2 percent per year. Number three, we cut -- number four, rather, we cut federal employment by at least 10 percent through attrition. And finally, we say to federal employees: You're not going to make more money than the people in the private sector who are paying for you. We link their compensation.