Here’s a new post at WOLA’s site in which I perform serious analysis on something I should normally be poking fun at: the Trump administration’s proposal to cut Latin America’s foreign assistance by 35 percent next year.
Some observations:
- Assistance to Central America would drop by 39 percent from 2016 to 2018.
- Assistance to Colombia would drop by 16 percent from 2016 to 2018, and by 36 percent from 2017 to 2018.
- Assistance to Mexico in the foreign aid bill would drop by 45 percent from 2016 to 2018.
- Along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Homeland Security appropriation calls for new fencing at a cost of $21.2 million per mile.
- Foreign Military Financing, the main military aid program in the foreign aid budget, would fall to zero throughout Latin America.
- The military aid cuts may get a boost from Defense Department budget aid accounts.
- The request devastates independent development agencies.