Dem Senator defends $20 million in USAID funds for Iraqi 'Sesame Street' to 'teach values'

A Democratic senator has defended the US Agency of International Development (USAID) spending money to fund a "Sesame Street" show in Iraq, saying that it is a good use of taxpayer funds in order to teach good "values" to children in the country.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) was speaking to CNN host Michael Smerconish in a segment, and told the host that the funding of the kids' program was important and worthwhile because the show "helps teach values, helps teach public health, helps prevent kids from dying from dysentery and disease and helps push values like collaboration, peacefulness, cooperation in a society where the alternative is ISIS, extremism and terrorism."

Coons said that the $20 million was "pennies on the dollar," adding, "The U.S. Department of Defense has an annual budget of about $850 billion. USAID was spending about $30 billion. It is a small proportion of our total federal spending. And as [political scientist Joseph Nye] would often say, it‘s not just soft power, it‘s smart power."

According to an archived record of the grant, $20 million was awarded by USAID to "Sesame Workshop with sub-awardees Mercy Corps and Save the Children" in order to "produce Ahlan Simsim Iraq." The grant states that the Sesame Street-like show is "designed to promote inclusion, mutual respect, and understanding across ethnic, religious, and sectarian groups."

The show was one example of spending that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has called out as wasteful spending by USAID. The agency has come under fire from DOGE as well as the Trump administration for spending on programs internationally that have been in contradiction to the priorities of the Trump administration.

Employees at the government agency were cut last week from 10,000 to under 300, with only key and vital workers remaining. The administration has plans to make USAID a portion of the State Department.