October 3, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
Due to the bailout of financial institutions, Sen. Barack Obama may not be able to increase foreign aid from $25-billion to $50-billion by 2012 if he is elected president, said Mr. Obama’s running mate Sen. Joe Biden during last night’s vice-presidential debate.
“The one thing we might have to slow down is a commitment we made to double foreign assistance. We’ll probably have to slow that down,” Mr. Biden said.
The decision will probably concern antipoverty groups that have sought for overseas aid to be on both presidential candidates’ agendas.
During the debate last night, Republican John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, would not identify what policy proposals would be jeopardized by the current financial problems.
Mr. McCain has pledged to support foreign aid, but he has not promised to double it, as Mr. Obama has.
