Jubilee USA Network

Joining hands to break the chains of debt

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Send a pre-written Letter to the Editor or write your own!

With the current financial crisis putting the role and selection of the next Treasury Secretary in the headlines, now is a great time to submit a letter to the editor of your local paper.

We already wrote the Letter to the Editor for you. You can edit it if you want, but if not all you do is choose your local paper, enter in your contact info, and click to send!

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In recent statements Senator McCain portrays foreign aid as “non essential” spending, while Senator Obama backpedals on his commitment to expand spending on international assistance to $50 billion. These unhelpful proposals would do nothing to solve our domestic financial woes while jeopardizing efforts to meet the most basic human needs of desperately poor people around the world. Expanded debt cancellation for poor countries not currently eligible would amount to a tiny fraction of the Wall Street bailout.

Unlike the dubious bail out and stimulus schemes supported by the candidates, we know that debt cancellation works. After receiving debt relief, the Tanzanian government was able to waive fees for primary school, putting nearly 2 million children back in school overnight. Debt relief has enabled Burundi to build 1100 primary school classrooms and Nicaragua to invest an additional $54 million in health care and $121 million in education in the past year alone.

Cutting foreign assistance and failing to provide debt cancellation will not yield the savings needed address the domestic financial crisis and will result in a more dangerous world for our children and grandchildren. While poverty does not directly lead to terrorism, it can create the conditions necessary for terrorist leaders to gain support and legitimize their actions at home and abroad. Widespread poverty in a country results in weak governmental institutions and a weak rule of law, creating safe havens for terrorism.

One of the issues to emerge from the election and financial crisis is the appointment of a new Treasury Secretary. This person must ensure the economy works for working families while shaping our nation’s relations with the rest of the world. Her support is pivotal to achieving debt relief for the world's poorest nations and restoring our moral leadership in the world. The next President needs to appoint a Treasury Secretary that prioritizes these issues as well.

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