Gates and Clinton Lobby Congress for Aid Money
ABC’s Z. Byron Wolf reports:
The world’s two most famous Bills (Clinton and Gates) lobbied the US Congress today for more money to combat poverty and disease in countries worldwide.
They told lawmakers that more should be done and more money spent by the United States on programs like PEPFAR, which targets AIDS and malaria, and the Global Health Initiative.
Clinton said he thinks most Americans are unaware how much the US spends to help poor foreign countries.
"They think we spend five or ten times what we actually spend on foreign issues," Clinton said.
Gates said the US should aim to spend about 1 percent of the Pentagon budget on international development.
"The idea that our health budget would be one percent of our military budget - that’s logical to me. I would argue for an even higher percentage," he said.
President Obama has requested $708 billion for the Pentagon in 2011 and just over 1 percent for international health programs, which comes to slightly more than $8 billion.
But it is unclear at this point how much Congress will be able to devote to foreign aid with a more than trillion budget deficit expected in 2011.
Both Clinton, the former President, and Gates, the multi-billionaire former head of Microsoft, have reinvented themselves in recent years as fundraisers and spokesmen for eponymous non-profit organizations (the Clinton Global Initiative and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) that seek to do good in developing nations.
Clinton said there is room for improvement in how the US distributes aid - cutting down on overhead and better distributing aid. He also said the US should rethink its strategy - "moving away from a dependency model of aid. to an empowerment model," he said.
And he suggested allowing people who buy foreign air tickets the ability to check a box and give a small donation. He pointed to a similar program in France, although there it is a mandatory tax - ranging from $1 to $10 - on international flights that provides most of the funding for Unitaid, the European version of PEPFAR.
Clinton also spoke about relief efforts in Haiti, where he is a special UN ambassador. The Hatian President visited Capitol Hill separately today and will also travel to the White House as he seeks foreign aid for rebuilding efforts.
"Before I leave this Earth I want to go to Haiti as a tourist. And the only thing they need from me is my money," Clinton said.
