‘I’m alarmed’: Bill Gates op-ed warns GOP risking lives — and national security

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took the Senate to task on Monday afternoon in a Wall Street Journal op-ed as the lawmakers eye cuts to what he called "almost every single effective lifesaving aid program."

The Senate is poised to mull over a rescission bill that aims to do away with more than $8 billion in foreign aid, including nearly $1 billion in direct aid for global health programs. That's in addition to the billions in aid already canceled.

"I’m alarmed at how a bid to eliminate inefficiencies in the U.S. budget—an important task—has put us on the verge of cutting funds for almost every single effective lifesaving aid program and, with it, our country’s proud history of helping others less fortunate than ourselves," Gates warned.

He pleaded with GOP leaders to "understand what this spending is" — and what it is not — before deciding to slash the money for global health programs. They should also learn "all the U.S. has gained from it," he added.

Gates shared three facts about health aid that have been lost in the discussion.

First, he smacked down any notion the government cuts a check and doesn't know what it's buying.

"That simply isn’t true. I know this because I read the audit reports produced by many global health programs that the American foreign aid budget funds," he said.

Second, the country has prioritized global health aid programs that are "great at preventing disease and death," he noted. Pepfar and PMI have collectively saved about 37 million people in just over two decades. They're also cost-efficient — all health aid totaled less than 0.1% of the U.S. budget in January.

Third, he said, the programs benefit American interests.

"... Global health is also an effective national-security policy. It promotes peace and stability in potentially dangerous regions, protects us from pandemic disease, and generates economic growth that benefits the whole world, including us," he said.

Gates concluded: "All Americans should be proud of the people they have helped by funding global health programs, and senators should vote to keep these programs, not cut them."