Int’l community worried by US budget cuts

— With his department reeling over President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cuts and the international community worried, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted Thursday he was happy to try to do more with less.

Though the budget is unlikely to pass Congress in its current form, it underscores Trump’s isolationist rhetoric and “America First” promises, urging a cut of at least 28 percent for U.S. diplomacy. Such a massive whack would be a shock for the State Department, which was founded in 1789 and has about 70,000 staff split between Washington and about 250 embassies and consulates worldwide.

The proposed cuts would see funding for the State Department and USAID, its foreign aid agency, shrivel from $50.9 billion this fiscal year to $37.6 billion next year.

The blueprint would also slash the budget for U.N. operations, and Washington “would not contribute more than 25 percent of U.N. peacekeeping costs,” as compared with the 28 percent it offers now.

“The U.N. spends more money than it should, and in many ways it places a much larger financial bur- den on the United States than on other countries,” said the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

A spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres quickly fired back, warning against “abrupt funding cuts” that could “undermine the impact of longer-term reform efforts.”

France’s ambassador to the U.N., Francois Delattre, told reporters that the world more than ever needed “a strong U.N. and an America that stays committed to world affairs.”

A number of non-governmental organizations expressed worry: Human Rights Watch lamented that the plan “shows President Trump is intent on undermining U.S. government agencies that address pressing human rights issues” while boosting defense spending.

Tillerson, speaking at his first press conference in Tokyo, said he would not oppose deep cuts to his department, saying he would “willingly” accept Trump’s challenge to tighten the budget.

“We are going to construct a way forward that allows us to be much more effective, much more efficient, and be able to do a lot with fewer dollars,” he said.