Sep 8 2011
Reuters examines how budget debates in Congress "could undo" President Barack Obama's "'smart power' approach, which elevates diplomacy and development alongside military power as guarantors of U.S. security in a rapidly changing world." Programs run through the State Department and USAID that provide "[f]ood aid to hungry countries, ... improved medical services for expectant mothers and the U.S. response to natural disasters such as earthquakes and droughts could be hit in a major scale-back of U.S. assistance," the news agency writes.
USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg "emphasized that the agency was ... seeking to focus its development efforts and establish a more cost-effective model -- albeit one that would require short-term budget support," the news agency notes. "In many cases, we are eliminating smaller programs so that we can focus our attention -- even in a reduced budget environment -- on strategic priority. That means focusing on areas like food security, global health, global climate change, democracy and governance and economic growth," Steinberg said (Cornwell/Quinn, 9/7).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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