Tough cuts: how $17 billion in foreign aid affects America

The government is trying to find a way to balance a $200 billion shortfall in the federal budget, and they’re looking at both big and small steps. One of the suggestions from the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform includes cutting the foreign aid budget in half by 2015. That would save around $17 billion � but what would be the ripple effects here at home?

To answer that question, we speak with Dustin Tingley, assistant professor of International Relations at Harvard University’s Department of Government, who says that most money designated for foreign aid actually flows through American companies before it reaches foreign soil.