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Letter: Foreign aid promotes America's ‘soft power’ image and shouldn't be curtailed

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 24, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Oxon Hill, Md. President Donald Trump's proposed deep cuts in foreign aid could mark the retreat of U.S. support for South Sudan, a nation America enthusiastically helped to create. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Through the new presidency, it seems Trump is aiming to cut a large portion of foreign aid, roughly 32 percent. These budget cuts deliver a harsh blow to countries in need of foreign aid. Promoting a budget cut on foreign aid is not where America makes up on all its national debt; foreign aid accounts for less than one percent of the national budget.

Budget cuts regarding foreign aid do more damage than good. The budget cut proposed would cut food aid funding from $3.5 billion (feeding 67 million people) to $1.5 billion reducing the amount fed to 29 million, a decrease that is greater than half. This is not only detrimental to outside countries but to the United States also.

Foreign aid promotes a “soft power” image of the United States in other countries. It allows for a peaceful presence of the United States to potentially calm the tensions that exist in other countries. Foreign aid should not be viewed as a contradiction or in competition with domestic aid, but as another positive action our nation has the capability to perform. Email Congress about bills that promote foreign aid through http://borgenproject.org/action-center/ and have Sen. Orrin Hatch and Sen. Mike Lee deal with the issue of foreign aid.

Bronti DeRoche, Salt Lake City