Testimony: Addressing the crisis of confidence in American foreign policy, by Danielle Pletka

"Mr. Chairman, Mr. Engel, Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, thank you for your invitation to testify here today on this important topic.
The proximate reason for my appearance before you is to discuss the 2018 budget request and a 28.7 percent reduction in the 150 account. No budget is sacrosanct; however, readers of the Budget justification would be correct to wonder whether the assumptions being made about everything from allied behavior to the possibility of renegotiating international agreements will really work. More troubling still, the spirit that animates this budget is not a new and sorely needed vision for foreign affairs in the 21st century; rather, it is a laundry list of budget cuts—some merited, some less so. But the sine qua non of effective foreign policy is vision, not dollars. And that is the right place for this Committee and the Congress to begin as it assesses how to make do with less in the International Affairs budget.
It has been suggested by the Trump administration and others that the reason for the cuts in State Department and other agencies’ funding is to plus up the Defense Department’s FY18 budget number. A few points on the wisdom of this framing:...."

EN:

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