How To Keep America Safe

FOREIGN AID IS often in the hot seat, but today the heat is cranked up especially high.

- Bill Gates

The U.S. government, one of the world’s most influential donors, is considering dramatic cuts to health and development programs around the world. I understand why some Americans watch their tax dollars going overseas and wonder why we’re not spending them at home. Here’s my answer: These projects keep Americans safe. And by promoting health, security and economic opportunity, they stabilize vulnerable parts of the world.

This is a lesson I’ve learned myself. When I first got involved in health and development, the main motivation was to save and improve people’s lives around the world. That’s still true today, but over the years I have come to see the tangible ways in which American aid benefits Americans too.