re: "Clinton asks Kerry for help on budget"

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside the Foreign Policy Machine") was following the back-and-forth at budget request time.

Money quote(s):

"Clinton called the Senate's allocation of $42 billion for State and USAID in 2012 "reasonable," but warned that deeper cuts in the House's proposal would force State to shutter some overseas posts and reduce the number of civilians working in conflict areas, as well as result in the U.S. government "turning our backs on the world's hungry and sick."

The State Department and the development NGO community have been focusing on the idea that the diplomacy and development budgets comprise less than 1 percent of federal spending."

Bearing in mind that foreign affairs is one of the powers and responsibilities for which the federal government is specifically charged by the U.S. Constitution, it can reasonably be asked by this is such a small percentage of the budget.

Setting aside percentages and pretending that this budget sufficient to the task, a reasonable person might question what the other 99+ percent of the budget entails, and if it's going for things that are appropriately the duty of the federal government to fund.

10/17