Page 2 - Begin Egypt News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

That this is such a small portion compared to, say, the security or medicare or other huge parts of our budget? >> well, that's one argument, brenda. i think another argument, and by the way, that's about 1% of the budget, but another strong argument is that it's an important diplomatic tool. obviously, sometimes it's used for corruption and dictators and all of that is problematic, we don't just want guns on the ground. we use it fighting aids, ma layerty and poverty and it's important for diplomacy. >> but, eric, here is the issue here. how to use the investments with leverage to actually br...

What it would cost for us to do those things is probably a pretty good return on investment and it doesn't always work out, but i think that ultimately that country was paid off for a long time to the benefit of american taxpayers in the long run. >> and thomas, the foreign aid is actually increased since 9/11 and much is used in counterterrorism, but do you believe that it is a good investment or does it depend on who's investing it, which is administration is using it, essentially. >> yeah, it's a great point. foreign aid is a great thing. it depends to the people that we're giving it, are t...