Bill Gates: U.S. Aid for Global Health Is Saving Lives
The Senate is about to consider a rescission bill that would eliminate more than $8 billion in lifesaving foreign aid, including nearly $1 billion in direct aid for global health programs, on top of the billions in such aid that has already been canceled. I'm alarmed at how a bid to eliminate inefficiencies in the U.S. budget—an important task—has put us on the verge of cutting funds for almost every single effective lifesaving aid program and, with it, our country's proud history of helping others less fortunate than ourselves.
The proposal to cut this aid passed the House last month, and the Senate is expected to vote this week. Before senators decide to cut funds for global health programs, they should understand what this spending is, what it isn't, and all the U.S. has gained from it.
I have now been working in global health for almost as long as I worked at Microsoft. The Gates Foundation has spent more than $100 billion, and I am as committed to excellence in this work as I was to Microsoft's. In global health, that means saving as many people's lives as possible for every dollar we spend on medicines or vaccines. That requires tracking and analyzing results closely, asking tough questions of my team, and seeing the work in action. I've been following the political debate over aid in the U.S., and there are three facts about health aid that keep getting lost in the back and forth.
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