The Hill - Diminishing American diplomacy around the globe a dangerous prospect

Brett Bruen at The Hill ("It signals the important issues of the moment.") makes some nice arguments about the importance of U.S. diplomacy to real life Americans.

Money quote(s):

"You’re robbed on a trip overseas. It’s late on a Friday night. A short message at the American Embassy informs you that due to budget cuts they no longer provide afterhours service. No help will be available until Monday. Even then, you’ll face long lines and limited options. Can our citizens really do without diplomats?"

Most consular services are supported by fees.  Application fees for visas, processing fees for passports, notarial fees; you get the picture.

There are some instances where there's no fee charged; in death cases, in assisting victims of crime, in visiting U.S. citizens detained, arrested, or imprisoned abroad.  That comes out of overhead.  Embassies and consulates (and the Bureau of Consular Affairs which pays the salaries of consular staff) eat the cost; the paying customers subsidize the non-paying ones.

One of the concerns about (possibly) moving the visa and passport missions to DHS is the question of who then shoulders the burden of some of the most sensitive functions of consular work, assisting U.S. citizens abroad?  Along with that, who pays for it?  Would State retain those responsibilities?  Would DHS assume them?  If the fees ($2 billion annually) were to move along with the visa and passport function to DHS, is Congress then going to begin appropriating a budget (which it hasn't had to do in decades) to pay for those non-fee generating services?

"In defending diplomacy, we too often talk in bold and broad terms. World peace. International trade. America’s standing on the global stage. These goals seem detached from the kinds of things that impact people every day. Less heralded are the concessions achieved by our negotiators that make the world a fairer place to do business. Few will connect the fact Americans need a visa to so few countries with the work of diplomacy. There are no parades for the war that didn’t happen."

Americans may travel to so many countries around the world needing to get a visa beforehand that some are honestly surprised when they encounter a situation where they do.  Naturally, that tends to happen (since nowadays nobody books trips through travel agencies which might have warned them) when they try to board a flight for their dream vacation destination and are denied boarding.  Even more naturally, that will happen as they try to change plans at an airport overseas and on a weekend in a city where they don't understand the language, they have no hotel reservations, and there is no U.S. consulate.

"There are those in the West Wing who doubt diplomats’ support for Trump’s foreign policies. Yet, every senior diplomat in Foggy Bottom served under Republican and Democratic administrations. They did so because they are guided by a belief in American principles, not party."

It's true our diplomats genuinely put country before party.  Nonetheless, it's also true that the last eight years really muddied those waters, especially in the minds of those who watched from the other side of the aisle.