“It’s time to respond … [to Americans who] have not been given a comprehensive explanation of how U.S. investments in foreign aid — particularly global health — are used or how they benefit Americans here at home,” Karl Hofmann, president and CEO of PSI, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece. “Global health investments benefit the globe. … Healthy families yield healthy societies and economies. Everyone everywhere benefits,” he states.

Hofmann concludes, “Investing in global health, as part of a robust international affairs budget, is smart for America and smart for the world. These are cost-effective investments that demonstrably save lives, strengthen communities, and grow economies. In tough budgetary times, the temptation to cut programs whose constituents are far away and powerless is strong. But making the relatively tiny international affairs budget bear a disproportionately big share of necessary cuts would be fooling ourselves” (10/4).