U.S. Cutting Funding for Democracy Promotion
President Obama, in my opinion, gave a good defense of democratic principles in his Cairo speech. However, from the budget cuts described below, it seems that the current administration believes the U.S. cannot promote democracy (or it isn’t a worthy endeavor or something to fix policy around). They seem to believe that it’s something that native peoples need to come to on their own.
From the Wall Street Journal:
“Start with Egypt, where U.S. support for democracy programs was reduced to $20 million, from $50 million, in the budget Congress adopted this spring. Funding for independent democracy groups will drop 70% or more despite record spending on just about everything else. The U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scobey, last month cut some $11 million in funding controlled by the State Department for civil society programs. From now on only groups approved by the ageless regime of Hosni Mubarak will qualify for these “economic support funds” — essentially a local veto over U.S. aid. That was U.S. policy before the Bush Administration changed it in 2006, and now it is again.”
