GOP Rep. Diaz-Balart: We Can Boost Funds to Confront China, Help Allies While Slashing Overall Foreign Ops. Spending to Below ’16 Levels

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Carl Higbie Primetime,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) discussed the Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Bill and stated that we can increase money to confront China and help our allies while cutting overall spending and said that the bill does so by getting back to below 2016 levels by eliminating funding to the United Nations general fund and World Health Organization and eliminating the climate change envoy.

Diaz-Balart said the cuts aren’t across-the-board, but the funding level is “below 2016 levels. But here’s the key: It’s not just a numbers issue. We are below the 2016 levels. But we’ve also gone and we’ve scrubbed every account and we’ve cut waste, fraud, we’ve cut programs that are actually — not only are not helping our national security interests, they’re hurting our national security interests. And we’ve been able to find more money for the things that are important, like, for example, confronting China, helping Taiwan, helping our allies.”

He added, “We defund the United Nations general fund. We defund the World Health Organization, which has now become a subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party. We eliminate this special climate change envoy and over 30 other of these special envoys, by the way, that have not been approved, or created by law. This is just stuff that has been growing over the years. And yet, we boost funds, for example, to confront Communist China a billion dollars over what the president wanted to do, and yet, we do this at 2016 levels of funding.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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