One Penny

The cost of life-saving humanitarian assistance is less than one penny on every taxpayer dollar.

One penny. One penny from every $1 of American taxpayer money goes towards foreign aid. It’s actually less, accounting for something like 0.7% of the overall annual federal budget, but I’m rounding up.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks and I haven’t been able to manage the words to try and make sense of the pending extinction of USAID. But as someone who has worked there for a long time, I felt compelled to at least share that simple fact and my perspective in response to some of the misinformation being bandied around to justify eliminating USAID completely.

I’m not going to get into the politics of the current situation. And we all have things we don't want tax money used for (I’m looking at you, taxpayer-funded pro sports stadiums gifted to billionaire owners; taxpayer bailouts for airlines and big banks making bad business decisions; or billions in taxpayer subsidies to fund private space exploration endeavors).

Like many others, I also agree that we can do more to make things more efficient and effective across all of government, including foreign assistance, and get the most bang for our buck.

What I can say based on my experience is that the return on this penny-on-a-dollar investment is immense. It helps people in poor countries beat deadly diseases like tuberculosis (95% of patients are cured in Bangladesh thanks to US support, where decades earlier, one out of four patients would not survive). It stops the spread of epidemics like ebola and bird flu (eggs, anyone?). People can take shelter and survive cyclones and floods, which used to claim lives of hundreds of thousands in Bangladesh in the past. And it provides life-saving food and support for people who have lost everything but their lives from things like genocide, famine, or other horrific maladies both natural and man-made.

The partnerships our country has created around the world as a result through our collective investment has built trust and goodwill towards the American people. As a result, they are less inclined to cozy up to less benevolent countries that threaten our national security and economic interests – or, to use the parlance and discourse of our modern times, f**k sh*t up at home.

I’m not sure what the future holds, but I want to thank all of my USAID colleagues and all of the development and humanitarian professionals I’ve had the honor and privilege to work with over the years for your tireless dedication and inspiration. I hope we can hold our heads high even though things are bleak at best.

Lastly, I thank the American people for your generosity – whether you’ve known about USAID before this week or not; or whether you even believe in the altruistic value of providing aid to poor countries or not – and know that you have helped in making our country stronger while helping lift the poorest among us out of poverty, and helping make the world a better place.

All for just one penny per tax dollar.

Thanks for listening.