Obama Defends U.S. Foreign Aid Spending During Twitter Town Hall Meeting
"President Barack Obama on Wednesday held his first-ever 'Town Hall' meeting using the social media network Twitter, focusing on the U.S. economy and jobs," VOA News reports (Robinson, 6/7).
In response to one question about foreign aid, Obama said, "It's important for people to know that foreign aid accounts for less than 2 percent of our budget. If you defined it just narrowly as the kind of foreign aid to help feed people and what we think of classically as foreign aid, it's probably closer to 1 percent," Press Trust of India/Business Standard reports. "So sometimes people have an exaggerated sense that we spend 25 percent of the federal budget on foreign aid. It's a tiny amount that has a big impact," according to Obama (7/7).
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