REED QUESTIONS SPENDING ON FOREIGN AID FOR CHINA; “We’re borrowing money from China to give foreign aid to China”

Tom Reed’s latest example of wasteful spending is also one the most frustrating.  Reed used a press call this morning to question why China received $17.8 million of foreign aid from the United States last year.  China is the United States’ largest creditor, holding more than $1.1 trillion of U.S. debt.

“We’re borrowing money from China so that we can give foreign aid to China,” Reed said. “China is the world’ second largest economy and we borrow more from China than any other nation. Yet we send them foreign aid? What sense does that make? This is another maddening example of how federal government spending just goes along without question and without common sense.”

“At a time when we are $15.7 trillion in debt and add more than $1.2 trillion to that every year, all spending must be examined and prioritized,” Reed said. “We must greatly reduce borrowing and spending for foreign aid. What we do spend must be done with  transparency and accountability and go directly to help people instead of into black holes in foreign capitals.”

In 2011, the State Department and USAID gave China $17.8 million in foreign aid. According to Congressional Research Service, more than $10 billion in U.S. Treasury Securities is held by nations which receive U.S. foreign aid.  “Our grandchildren will quite literally pay for this,” Reed said.

In February, Reed began an initiative to keep a spotlight on taxpayer dollars being frittered away without accountability by federal agencies.  The program has highlighted nearly  $675,000,000 of wasteful spending thus far.

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