Graham pushes foreign aid

MOUNT PLEASANT -- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham told the local Rotary Club on Wednesday that he is open to changing how the United States spends its foreign-aid dollars but doesn't want to see them cut off.

Graham praised the club's longtime commitment to eradicating polio -- an effort backed with $300 million from software by the Bill Gates Foundation that successfully controlled the disease's spread everywhere but in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

"You know how much money the federal government is going to spend on eradicating polio? Thirty-five million, and I'm fighting like hell to keep it," he said.

Graham, the senior Republican on the Senate's State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs subcommittee, said even though the nation is broke, it can't afford to become isolationist.

"To me, it is a good use of taxpayers dollars to be involved in the world in a productive way," he said. "I firmly believe the best way to defeat terrorism is not just killing terrorists but empowering those who would live in peace with us."

Graham said he does favor changes, though, such as extending loans to Libya rather than grants and ceasing funding to the United Nations' Human Rights Council.

Still, polls show little public support for foreign aid, and GOP presidential hopefuls have taken turns criticizing it.

Graham said he hasn't noticed any political blowback from his advocacy of foreign aid and noted his support for such aid stems in part from his conversations with CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus. "The State Department programs can help our military sometimes more than bombs can," he said.

Graham also touched on the importance of finding about $175 million to deepen Charleston Harbor to 51 or 52 feet; revamping entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare; and making the National Labor Relations Board's lawsuit against Boeing part of the 2012 presidential debate.