Global philanthropist Melinda Gates said she is "deeply concerned" about President Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts to foreign aid, given that the U.S. has helped cure diseases and save the lives of 122 million children through decades of nominal funding.
In a column for CNN, the wife of billionaire Bill Gates and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said the "cuts to US foreign aid would threaten the very progress so many are working so hard to achieve."
"I am deeply aware that budgeting finite resources always requires difficult decisions — so I understand why some Americans ask why US taxpayer dollars should go overseas when there is so much need within our own borders," wrote Gates, who made Time's Top 100 list of Most Influential People.
"The facts are this: Less than 1% of the US federal budget goes to aid, and the dollars spent abroad reap dividends for our country, too," Gates wrote.
Those dividends, according to Gates:
Epidemics like Ebola never reach our shores because "health workers funded by foreign aid" are mobilized quickly.
"Investing in global health and development also helps keep Americans safe."
"Helping countries lift themselves out of poverty, we also create markets for US products."
Gates said she is spending the week in D.C. on behalf of the foundation, getting in the ears of lawmakers to fight against the cuts.
Bill Gates is on a similar mission in Britain.
"The cost of these cuts is far too great for our country — or our conscience — to bear," Melinda Gates concluded.
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