Sen. Coons Defends USAID Spending $20 Million on Sesame Street in Iraq: ‘It‘s a Show that Helps Teach Values’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
SMERCONISH: “Is funding Sesame Street a judicious use of soft power?”

COONS: “Well, Michael, the way you put it is the way I hope, folks, considering your poll today will think about it. This isn‘t just funding a kids show for children. Millions of children in countries like Iraq. It‘s a show that helps teach values, helps teach public health, helps prevent kids from dying from dysentery and disease, and helps push values like collaboration, peacefulness, cooperation. In a society where the alternative is ISIS, extremism and terrorism. And to your point, it‘s pennies on the dollar. The U.S. Department of Defense has an annual budget of about $850 billion. USAID was spending about $30 billion. It is a small proportion of our total federal spending. And as Joe nye would often say, it‘s not just soft power, it‘s smart power. Let me leave you with one other quote, Michael, if I could. Jim Mattis, who is a four star marine corps general and Trump‘s secretary of defense in his first term in a hearing back then, said, if you—“