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

Puppycow

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Context, if you don't already know:
Rubio says he’s acting director of USAID as humanitarian agency is taken over by the State Department (CNN)

The news came hours after Elon Musk, the world’s richest man charged with overhauling the federal government, said President Donald Trump had signed off on shutting the agency down. Democrats say that it is not legal for the president to shutter a federal agency without consulting Congress.
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Later, Monday, Trump said he doesn’t need Congress to scrap the agency.

“Not when it comes to fraud. If there’s fraud, these people are lunatics,” Trump said when questioned by CNN’s Jeff Zeleny about his capacity to exact major changes to USAID.

“We just want to do the right thing. It’s something that should have been done a long time ago. Went crazy during the Biden administration. They went totally crazy what they were doing and the money they were giving to people that shouldn’t be getting,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
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“They turn out to be radical left lunatics. And the concept of it is good, but it’s all about the people,” he said.
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So he wants to fire all of the employees of the agency who he considers "radical left lunatics" and put in his own people.

Among projects funded by the agency, which are cited as evidence are:
1. "$1.5M to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces."

2. "$70k for a production of a DEI musical in Ireland."

3. "$47k for a transgender opera in Colombia."

4. "$32k for a transgender comic book in Peru."
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Even if true and taken at face value that's a fraction of one percent of the USAID budget and doesn't justify shuttering the entire department.

Given how much the right wing absolutely lies about things it doesn't like, I wouldn't be too shocked to find that, say, the $70k for Ireland wasn't directly targeted at a DEI musical but instead was given to an organisation which spent that much on that project or some other, more reasonable explanation.

Then again, if transgender people in other countries are at risk then maybe a tiny fraction of one percent of the budget of a department may not be a bad way of protecting those people whilst reinforcing liberal values.
 
I don't think any of those projects are evidence of fraud.

I sure hope he can produce some evidence of fraud or he is in for absolutely no consequences whatsoever.
 
Trump tried to claim that $50 million was going on condoms for Gaza that were used for bomb making. With, unsurprisingly, not a shred of evidence.
www.usatoday.com

Donald Trump says he stopped $50 million for condoms going to Gaza. Is it true?

The U.S. has spent millions of dollars to send contraceptives to other countries. Did Trump's White House really stop $50 million in condoms for Gaza?
www.usatoday.com

As I mentioned elsewhere, recipients of USAID money, that was supposedly guaranteed and on the basis of which programmes to help people, and often save lives, had been undertaken, have been told to cease operations in places such as Ukraine, immediately. Lives will undoubtedly be lost as a result.
 
zooterkin said:
Trump tried to claim that $50 million was going on condoms for Gaza that were used for bomb making. With, unsurprisingly, not a shred of evidence.
www.usatoday.com

Donald Trump says he stopped $50 million for condoms going to Gaza. Is it true?

The U.S. has spent millions of dollars to send contraceptives to other countries. Did Trump's White House really stop $50 million in condoms for Gaza?
www.usatoday.com

As I mentioned elsewhere, recipients of USAID money, that was supposedly guaranteed and on the basis of which programmes to help people, and often save lives, had been undertaken, have been told to cease operations in places such as Ukraine, immediately. Lives will undoubtedly be lost as a result.
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Not white American lives so it doesn't matter.
 
Ya, piss off the Irish. That never goes poorly.

They are going to burn far more money trying to be "more efficient"* than they will ever recover from these programs. Anyone who has worked in Corporate America knows the biggest waste are "efficiency experts".

*its not about efficiency. It is about funneling money into their own pockets.
 
These sovereign countries can fund their own crap dei things.
Shutter it for audit,then open again for the actual good soft power programs that are a net benefit to AMERICANS. The USA isn't a charity.
 
Sherkeu said:
These sovereign countries can fund their own crap dei things.
Shutter it for audit,then open again for the actual good soft power programs that are a net benefit to AMERICANS. The USA isn't a charity.
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I guess you've never heard of "soft power", or that sometimes spending money abroad actually prevents more expensive problems at home (e.g. aid can prevent people becoming refugees seeking asylum).
 
Sherkeu said:
These sovereign countries can fund their own crap dei things.
Shutter it for audit,then open again for the actual good soft power programs that are a net benefit to AMERICANS. The USA isn't a charity.
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And it's Trump and Musk in charge of those net benefit programs. Even if the USAID did some good things, just imagine all the great things it will be able to do with those two in charge. They shut it down, and build it back up in their image. This can only result in an improvement that will benefit the American people.
 
zooterkin said:
I guess you've never heard of "soft power", or that sometimes spending money abroad actually prevents more expensive problems at home (e.g. aid can prevent people becoming refugees seeking asylum).
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Sure. Only problem is that it doesn't work. Asylum seekers of the last 10yrs, that were 90% young men, are the biggest rapers of the west at the moment. I'm not too happy about it.
 
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