WASHINGTON, Jan 12, 2001 (LSN.ca) – US Senator Jesse Helms has proposed that the militantly pro-abortion US foreign aid agency, USAID (the US equivalent of the Canadian International Development Agency) be scrapped and that religious and private groups take over its mandate. Helms, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, decried the “cold, heartless bureaucratic thinking” of USAID and said “the time has, I think, come to reject what (President-elect) Bush correctly labels the ‘failed compassion of towering, distant bureaucracies’ and instead empower private and faith-based groups who care most about those in need.” Helms remarks came Thursday in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
Helms put a lie to the image of the heartless Republican painted by Democrats saying that he would favour an increase in foreign aid funding if the money were to go to groups that will use it effectively. He said however, that his top priority at the moment is to reverse President Clinton’s “outrageous and unconscionable decision” to sign the treaty to create the International Criminal Court.
USAID and its Canadian counterpart CIDA, while they have undertaken some good initiatives have both been heavily criticized for their involvement in population control and leftist social engineering projects and their massive waste of funds.
See the AP coverage at: https://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,500298813-500476902-503252803-0,00.html