Merged USAID: is it really a bunch of crazy leftists? / Trump Was Absolutely Right to Shut Down USAID

[Gulliver Foyle]

They (the economic blocs) will pay Musk to bring the technology companies with him. TwiX, SpaceX and Tesla are big, big businesses, and they drag a lot of international subsidiary industries with them, many of which are already based outside the USA.

The blocs may also put restrictions on him getting too involved once they are transitioned, so as not to have a repeat of the US experience of Musk running riot in the halls of power unchecked. "You can have the money, just ◊◊◊◊ off back to your Fantasy Island or wherever you came from."

Muskrat only cares about the money, really. So if he isn't already doing so, he will take dinars, reals, yen, renminbi, ringgit and rupees, etc., whatever. Just lots of them, and as much tax-free as possible. Playing with the tech is a secondary interest.

No, they are failing businesses which are massive welfare sinks. Now, granted there are plenty of politicians with a big enough grá for capitalism that think bringing some of its worst exemplars to their country is a good them (or go9d enough for kicbacks, at least). But anybody with a bit of cop on should know the only time you touch anything of Musk's, even with a barge pole, is to violently shove it far away.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

At Inside Medicine Jeremy Faust wrote, "If the impact of these projects is not clear, a stunning new paper out this week in The Lancet sheds light on exactly how large that impact is. That study concludes that USAID funding saved nearly 92 million lives during the 21 years analyzed, including over 30 million children under age 5. The analysis also projects that if the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID are not reversed or otherwise recovered, 14 million preventable deaths—ones that the US was slated to otherwise save—will occur by 2030. (Note: the statistical confidence interval spans from 8 million to 19 million deaths. Regardless of where in that range the real number ends up falling, all of these figures are horrific.)"

 

[Norman Alexander]

At Inside Medicine Jeremy Faust wrote, "If the impact of these projects is not clear, a stunning new paper out this week in The Lancet sheds light on exactly how large that impact is. That study concludes that USAID funding saved nearly 92 million lives during the 21 years analyzed, including over 30 million children under age 5. The analysis also projects that if the Trump administration’s cuts to USAID are not reversed or otherwise recovered, 14 million preventable deaths—ones that the US was slated to otherwise save—will occur by 2030. (Note: the statistical confidence interval spans from 8 million to 19 million deaths. Regardless of where in that range the real number ends up falling, all of these figures are horrific.)"

Trumpists don't care. They are dead brown children, probably commie mooslims, who live over there where we can't see them.

 

[Flo]

Muskrat only cares about the money, really. So if he isn't already doing so, he will take dinars, reals, yen, renminbi, ringgit and rupees, etc., whatever. Just lots of them, and as much tax-free as possible. Playing with the tech is a secondary interest.

Musk has had a taste of the power that comes with offering money to politicians, and this is formidably addictive. Furthermore, there are lots of politicians outside of the USA who would relish getting some of his money and doing to their country's rule of law what is being done in the US …

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Trumpists don't care. They are dead brown children, probably commie mooslims, who live over there where we can't see them.

Trump sees no value whatever in soft power or goodwill. The USA's reputation as a force for good in the world was worthless to him and could be trashed to save a nickel. He only understands the power to compel. Americans who felt pride in the USA being the good guys are out of step. All that matters is having the power to tell other people what to do and feeling great about being able to threaten them in ways that leave them no choice.

It's what he admires about Putin.

 

[Puppycow]

USAID officially closes, attracting condemnation from Obama and Bush

As the US agency officially winds down foreign aid operations, former presidents hit out at Donald Trump.

www.bbc.com

Bipartisan condemnation. But Bush no longer has much clout in Republican circles anymore.

ETA: At the end of the article, there is this:

USAID was seen as integral to the global aid system. After Trump's cuts were announced, other countries followed suit with their own reductions - including the UK, France and Germany.

Last month, the United Nations said it was dealing with "the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector".

Other countries followed suit?

 

[P.J. Denyer]

USAID officially closes, attracting condemnation from Obama and Bush

As the US agency officially winds down foreign aid operations, former presidents hit out at Donald Trump.

www.bbc.com

Bipartisan condemnation. But Bush no longer has much clout in Republican circles anymore.

ETA: At the end of the article, there is this:

Other countries followed suit?

I think the main reason was fear that Trump was about to start a global recession and the perceived need to switch funding to the military & Ukraine. But there will also have been programs that acted with US AID programs and became useless on their own

 

[catsmate]

It's fun to go into these threads and experience the "how it started/how it's going" exemplified by the early defenders completely abandoning them, I assume out of shame.

A common phenomenon amongst Trumpettes.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Reliefweb wrote, "90% of USAID's foreign aid contracts have been terminated, impacting tens of billions of dollars in global humanitarian efforts, including $1.4 billion cuts in emergency nutrition funding. Ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) - specialized medical treatments that have revolutionized the fight against child deaths from malnutrition - are running critically low, putting millions of children's lives at immediate risk. Massive stock-outs are projected to begin in the coming weeks and months, with nutrition experts warning of likely mass loss of children's lives...RUTFs, including the well-known peanut paste "Plumpy'nut", are game-changing medical treatments that have improved the child survival rate of severely malnourished children from 25% to <90%. These nutrient-dense, fortified food products help severely malnourished children, who are 11 times more likely to die than healthy children, recover and regain strength to feed normally again in as little as six weeks. Without these supplies, children who could be saved with approximately $150 worth of treatment will instead face death."

 

[The Don]

Reliefweb wrote, "90% of USAID's foreign aid contracts have been terminated, impacting tens of billions of dollars in global humanitarian efforts, including $1.4 billion cuts in emergency nutrition funding. Ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) - specialized medical treatments that have revolutionized the fight against child deaths from malnutrition - are running critically low, putting millions of children's lives at immediate risk. Massive stock-outs are projected to begin in the coming weeks and months, with nutrition experts warning of likely mass loss of children's lives...RUTFs, including the well-known peanut paste "Plumpy'nut", are game-changing medical treatments that have improved the child survival rate of severely malnourished children from 25% to <90%. These nutrient-dense, fortified food products help severely malnourished children, who are 11 times more likely to die than healthy children, recover and regain strength to feed normally again in as little as six weeks. Without these supplies, children who could be saved with approximately $150 worth of treatment will instead face death."

Feature, not a bug.

Those children are brown and a long way from the US and are therefore at best irrelevant.

Who cares if those children die ? They were never going to vote Republican and likely anyone who cares whether they live or die wouldn't either.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Feature, not a bug.

Those children are brown and a long way from the US and are therefore at best irrelevant.

Who cares if those children die ? They were never going to vote Republican and likely anyone who cares whether they live or die wouldn't either.

If they'd only taken the basic precaution of being born to wealth, America , Republican parents they'd have been fine. They really only have themselves to blame.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Stephen Novella on the cuts to USAID:

Cutting to the Bone - NeuroLogica Blog

One potentially positive outcome from the COVID pandemic is that it was a wakeup call - if there was any doubt previously about the fact that we all live in one giant interconnected world, it should not have survived the recent pandemic. This is particularly true when it comes to infectious...

theness.com

In March 2025 Dr. Novella wrote, "In short, controlling infectious agents is a world-wide problem, and it requires a world-wide response. Not only is this a humanitarian effort, it is in our own best self-interest. The rest of the world is a breeding ground for bugs that will come to our shores. This is why we really need an organization, funded by the most wealthy nations, to help establish, fund, and enforce good policies when it comes to identifying, treating, and preventing infectious illness. This includes vaccination programs, sanitation, disease outbreak monitoring, drug treatment programs, and supportive care programs (like nutrition). We would also benefit from programs that target specific hotspots of infectious disease in poor countries that do not have the resources to adequately deal with them, like HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and tuberculosis in Bangladesh...So if USAID prevents one COVID-like pandemic every century or so, it is more than worth it. More likely, however, it will reduce the deadliness of common infectious illnesses, like HIV and tuberculosis."

 

[Norman Alexander]

In March 2025 Dr. Novella wrote, "In short, controlling infectious agents is a world-wide problem, and it requires a world-wide response. Not only is this a humanitarian effort, it is in our own best self-interest. The rest of the world is a breeding ground for bugs that will come to our shores. This is why we really need an organization, funded by the most wealthy nations, to help establish, fund, and enforce good policies when it comes to identifying, treating, and preventing infectious illness. This includes vaccination programs, sanitation, disease outbreak monitoring, drug treatment programs, and supportive care programs (like nutrition). We would also benefit from programs that target specific hotspots of infectious disease in poor countries that do not have the resources to adequately deal with them, like HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and tuberculosis in Bangladesh...So if USAID prevents one COVID-like pandemic every century or so, it is more than worth it. More likely, however, it will reduce the deadliness of common infectious illnesses, like HIV and tuberculosis."

Now the USA is going to become the intersection of those breeding grounds for bugs.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

A story at Business Insider from 2 February 2025 showed a picture of the letters on the USAID building after they had been taken down. Good thing that the 90-day review came to the conclusion that the agency should be shut down.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed a change in taxes. "The No Tax on Home Sales Act would eliminate the federal capital gains tax on the sale of a primary residence—a key distinction Greene emphasizes...The goal, she explains, is to make it easier for everyday homeowners to sell without losing a portion of their profits to the IRS...Rather than raising taxes elsewhere or borrowing more, Greene says the funding gap could be closed by trimming foreign aid spending abroad. “We can cut some foreign aid spending and make sure that we’re giving a giant gift to the American people and cutting capital gains taxes when they sell their home,” she says." I am putting this information into the present thread for two reasons. One, with USAID essentially gone, I am not sure how much foreign aid is left. Two, Ms. Greene's proposed solution reminds one how unpopular foreign aid is.

 

[theprestige]

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed a change in taxes. "The No Tax on Home Sales Act would eliminate the federal capital gains tax on the sale of a primary residence—a key distinction Greene emphasizes...The goal, she explains, is to make it easier for everyday homeowners to sell without losing a portion of their profits to the IRS...Rather than raising taxes elsewhere or borrowing more, Greene says the funding gap could be closed by trimming foreign aid spending abroad. “We can cut some foreign aid spending and make sure that we’re giving a giant gift to the American people and cutting capital gains taxes when they sell their home,” she says." I am putting this information into the present thread for two reasons. One, with USAID essentially gone, I am not sure how much foreign aid is left. Two, Ms. Greene's proposed solution reminds one how unpopular foreign aid is.

Democrats: America is a failed state, a third world ◊◊◊◊ hole.

Also Democrats: America needs to spend more money solving other people's problems, rather than its own.

 

[Chris_Halkides]

Also Democrats: America needs to spend more money solving other people's problems, rather than its own.

This is a false dichotomy. For example see my comment #932.

 

[Reformed Offlian]

Also Democrats: America needs to spend more money solving other people's problems,
rather than its own.

Which Democrats have said this? Any links?

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Democrats: America is a failed state, a third world ◊◊◊◊ hole.

Also Democrats: America needs to spend more money solving other people's problems, rather than its own.

It's cheaper than spending trillions on wars, like Republicans do.
If after Trump 1.0 you still think Republicans have any clue or desire to balance the budget, never mind reduce the debt, you should have your brain and examined.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene proposed a change in taxes. "The No Tax on Home Sales Act would eliminate the federal capital gains tax on the sale of a primary residence—a key distinction Greene emphasizes...The goal, she explains, is to make it easier for everyday homeowners to sell without losing a portion of their profits to the IRS...Rather than raising taxes elsewhere or borrowing more, Greene says the funding gap could be closed by trimming foreign aid spending abroad. “We can cut some foreign aid spending and make sure that we’re giving a giant gift to the American people and cutting capital gains taxes when they sell their home,” she says." I am putting this information into the present thread for two reasons. One, with USAID essentially gone, I am not sure how much foreign aid is left. Two, Ms. Greene's proposed solution reminds one how unpopular foreign aid is.

Lots of it, all the weapons given away to Israel to commit genocide, for example.