Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons expressed support Saturday for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) use of taxpayer dollars to fund programs such as the children’s puppetry show Sesame Street in Iraq.
Coons expressed his view while on air with CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish. “This isn’t just funding a kids’ show for children — millions of children — in countries like Iraq,” Coons said. “It’s a show that helps teach values, helps teach public health, helps prevent kids from dying from dysentery and disease and helps push values like collaboration, peacefulness, and cooperation in a society where the alternative is ISIS [the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham], extremism, and terrorism.”
Coons also told Smerconish the funding for Sesame Street in Iraq was “pennies on the dollar” as its annual budget was $30 billion,…
