Emma Ashburn covered Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in which she defended international health spending at a time of domestic belt-tightening.
“At a time when American unemployment is recorded as slightly less than 10 percent, and we know structural unemployment is worse, and we’re asking hard-working, maybe unemployed Americans, to keep paying their taxes, some of that money will go to fund our development and diplomacy efforts worldwide.”
“I have to be able to look them in the eye and tell them they’re getting their money’s worth,” Clinton said. 
In pressing for the Global Health Initiative, which provides $63 billion over 2009-2014 to combat health problems like malaria and HIV/AIDS, Clinton drew some chuckles when she suggested that aid workers could tighten their belts a little too.
“If we’re going to have a country team, in a country, working together, they don’t all need their own SUVs. We have got to get smart about how we spend our money,” she said.
