{"id":165724,"date":"2025-08-13T17:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T17:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/?p=165724"},"modified":"2025-10-07T13:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:21:08","slug":"cost-of-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.one.org\/us\/stories\/cost-of-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Lives in the Balance: The Cost of Foreign Assistance Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last updated on 10\/07\/2025<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In moments of crisis, the stories we tell matter. The right story has the power to shape a movement, disrupt a crisis, provide comfort, community, inspiration.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wrong story can fuel chaos, thwart justice and progress, and cause irreparable human suffering \u2013 even loss of life.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At ONE, we consider ourselves to be \u201cfactivists,\u201d driven not by partisan ideology but by facts and data \u2013 and a desire to use those facts and data to ensure that everyone, every where can lead a life of dignity and opportunity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of significant disruptions to US humanitarian and development assistance, a global trend toward reductions in foreign assistance spending, and denial from world leaders that these actions have consequences, we need to be telling the right story \u2013 that reckless cuts to lifesaving foreign assistance programs without a backup plan in place have, in fact, claimed lives \u2013 and will continue to do so unless we take action.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If U.S.A.I.D. would be here, [he] would not have died.<\/strong>” <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You might have heard accusations of \u201ctremendous fraud<\/a>\u201d at USAID \u2013 that “massive sums of money<\/a>” have been wasted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While no one disputes the need for common-sense reforms, these claims don’t hold up – let’s look at the real numbers. In fiscal 2023, (the most recent year for which data is complete) the US disbursed $71.9 billion in foreign assistance.<\/a> That\u2019s not a small number, to be sure, but it actually amounts to \u2026 less than one percent of the federal budget. And when you break that $71.9 billion down into what is spent on actual lifesaving assistance, it\u2019s an even smaller fraction of our annual spending. In fiscal year 2023, for example, the US spent a little over $12 billion on global health.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might have also heard that \u201cno one has died<\/a>\u201d as a result of disruptions to that life-saving foreign assistance funding. (During recent testimony before Congress, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio went as far as to call it \u201ca lie\u201d<\/a> to say that people have died.)  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This narrative is both demonstrably false and incredibly dangerous. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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