USAID funding - sad conversation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, good news everyone. Did you know that you can donate to non profits that provide medical care to poor people in developing countries? I just found out. Before now, I thought it could only be done with my tax dollars, and distributed in a manipulative way that advanced U.S. foreign policy.

Anyway, now that I know this, I guess I can still help people who are less fortunate than I am.

There are plenty of non profits helping in poor countries but they will never make up for the cut in US funding. Also, the US had pretty good leverage in those countries, far more than the non profits. Good work is being done by groups such as Save the Children but they can only do so much. Finally, a lot of non profits had funding from USAID but now that money is gone.

Surely all the good liberals in this country will put their money where their mouth is and write checks. No? Only if the IRS demands? Hmmm.

To quote Bernie Sanders regarding his abysmal rate of charitable giving "We do what we do."

It's not the job of one side to support soft power. Both sides should take responsibility but the billionaire Musk and his sidekick Yawny Donny did not want to do that.

Every day, around 1,000 babies die from AIDS due to US AID cuts. So, you win. You get a cookie of death.

I mean...I admire the audacity. Making up something like this in the age of the internet is bold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID was soft power, and gave us a way to influence foreign policy, in our own interest. It helped keep the US at the negotiation table, and now it's just China and Russia. We just walked away from key relations with foreign governments that took years to build. It is heartbreaking that people in these countries relied on our leadership, especially in human rights and democracy. And we just walked away.

+1
It gave us multiple angles for soft power via winning people over, managing some aspects of what was in education, etc. It also kept many horrible diseases at bay. Something I think lots of these maga done grasp is that it was in essence a handout to farmers in the US without being a direct handout.

What did our soft power in Africa get us? Be specific, because China bought the mineral rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey, good news everyone. Did you know that you can donate to non profits that provide medical care to poor people in developing countries? I just found out. Before now, I thought it could only be done with my tax dollars, and distributed in a manipulative way that advanced U.S. foreign policy.

Anyway, now that I know this, I guess I can still help people who are less fortunate than I am.

Bingo. Everyone is free to donate their money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID was soft power, and gave us a way to influence foreign policy, in our own interest. It helped keep the US at the negotiation table, and now it's just China and Russia. We just walked away from key relations with foreign governments that took years to build. It is heartbreaking that people in these countries relied on our leadership, especially in human rights and democracy. And we just walked away.

+1
It gave us multiple angles for soft power via winning people over, managing some aspects of what was in education, etc. It also kept many horrible diseases at bay. Something I think lots of these maga done grasp is that it was in essence a handout to farmers in the US without being a direct handout.

What did our soft power in Africa get us? Be specific, because China bought the mineral rights.

Like, good vibes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID was soft power, and gave us a way to influence foreign policy, in our own interest. It helped keep the US at the negotiation table, and now it's just China and Russia. We just walked away from key relations with foreign governments that took years to build. It is heartbreaking that people in these countries relied on our leadership, especially in human rights and democracy. And we just walked away.

+1
It gave us multiple angles for soft power via winning people over, managing some aspects of what was in education, etc. It also kept many horrible diseases at bay. Something I think lots of these maga done grasp is that it was in essence a handout to farmers in the US without being a direct handout.

What did our soft power in Africa get us? Be specific, because China bought the mineral rights.

A doubling of its population in the last thirty years, from approximately 750 million in 1995 to 1.5 billion today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID was soft power, and gave us a way to influence foreign policy, in our own interest. It helped keep the US at the negotiation table, and now it's just China and Russia. We just walked away from key relations with foreign governments that took years to build. It is heartbreaking that people in these countries relied on our leadership, especially in human rights and democracy. And we just walked away.

+1
It gave us multiple angles for soft power via winning people over, managing some aspects of what was in education, etc. It also kept many horrible diseases at bay. Something I think lots of these maga done grasp is that it was in essence a handout to farmers in the US without being a direct handout.

What did our soft power in Africa get us? Be specific, because China bought the mineral rights.

A doubling of its population in the last thirty years, from approximately 750 million in 1995 to 1.5 billion today.

How is that a gain for the US?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, good news everyone. Did you know that you can donate to non profits that provide medical care to poor people in developing countries? I just found out. Before now, I thought it could only be done with my tax dollars, and distributed in a manipulative way that advanced U.S. foreign policy.

Anyway, now that I know this, I guess I can still help people who are less fortunate than I am.

There are plenty of non profits helping in poor countries but they will never make up for the cut in US funding. Also, the US had pretty good leverage in those countries, far more than the non profits. Good work is being done by groups such as Save the Children but they can only do so much. Finally, a lot of non profits had funding from USAID but now that money is gone.

Surely all the good liberals in this country will put their money where their mouth is and write checks. No? Only if the IRS demands? Hmmm.

To quote Bernie Sanders regarding his abysmal rate of charitable giving "We do what we do."

It's not the job of one side to support soft power. Both sides should take responsibility but the billionaire Musk and his sidekick Yawny Donny did not want to do that.

Every day, around 1,000 babies die from AIDS due to US AID cuts. So, you win. You get a cookie of death.

It is not the responsibility of the U.S. to stop babies from dying due to a disease that easily stopped with basic sexual education. That needs to happen at a level that the U.S. has not, and can never change. That needs to happen culturally in those countries.

Stop throwing good money after bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:USAID was soft power, and gave us a way to influence foreign policy, in our own interest. It helped keep the US at the negotiation table, and now it's just China and Russia. We just walked away from key relations with foreign governments that took years to build. It is heartbreaking that people in these countries relied on our leadership, especially in human rights and democracy. And we just walked away.

+1
It gave us multiple angles for soft power via winning people over, managing some aspects of what was in education, etc. It also kept many horrible diseases at bay. Something I think lots of these maga done grasp is that it was in essence a handout to farmers in the US without being a direct handout.

What did our soft power in Africa get us? Be specific, because China bought the mineral rights.

A doubling of its population in the last thirty years, from approximately 750 million in 1995 to 1.5 billion today.

How is that a gain for the US?

It’s not. Our support is creating unsustainable population growth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah. And diseases travel. Keeping people healthy far away is also good for us here in the US but noone seems to get that.

And that was mainly the point. The U.S. didn't get involved in eradicating diseases and vaccinating people around the world because we're so dang empathetic. Sure, that's part of it. But the main driver was that it was in our own best interest. The U.S. in on a path to self destruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a discussion recently with a very good and intelligent friend who was happy about the elimination of USAID funding for medical care. He said that we should be taking care of our own people and let non profits take care of others. I said we do take care of our own people and as the wealthiest country in the world we should be helping the poorest to some extent. He continued to disagree until I actually presented him with some facts. First, the US government spends almost $2 trillion a year on Medicare, Medicaid etc. USAID medical care was about $7 billion or less than 1/2 of one percent on what the US government spends on its own people. He thought I was full of BS so he pulled up his IPad and went to ChatGPT and my numbers were very close. Then he switched gears to corruption with USAID and I said you don’t think corruption exists in US health care? It’s sad when very intelligent people have very strong beliefs but no facts. I doubt if I changed his mind but my guess is that most members of congress who voted down USAID don’t know the numbers either.

Don’t waste your time with the cult members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USAID was funding a lot of stuff it had no business funding. Some of the best things it was doing is still being funded via State.

This thread is just bluesky repeat bubble and pointless to engage in any further.

And you’re just parroting X and Truth Social propaganda.

[Anonymous]

The very same people who cut the funding to USAID also want to cut programs that help Americans, like Medicaid and Medicare. They do not plan to funnel the savings from USAID to domestic aid programs. We get nothing out of this.

Dismantling USAID has really hurt American farmers who produce wheat, rice, sorghum and peanuts. Our government bought their crops to feed people through USAID. That stopped overnight. The farmers lost trade relationships. The mills that processed crops lost business. The companies that sell farming equipment and supplies lost business. Americans are hurting because of this.

But you know who got tons of new government contracts? Elon Musk. Instead of spending money to save lives and buy us good will, we’re making Elon richer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey, good news everyone. Did you know that you can donate to non profits that provide medical care to poor people in developing countries? I just found out. Before now, I thought it could only be done with my tax dollars, and distributed in a manipulative way that advanced U.S. foreign policy.

Anyway, now that I know this, I guess I can still help people who are less fortunate than I am.

Bingo. Everyone is free to donate their money.

Yes, they can, but it’s probably more useful to consolidate it through a government agency than many random charities.

[Anonymous]

Little Bill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh here we go:

Them: We should focus on care in the US and not spending it all over the place.

Us: OK! Let's have universal health care and free school lunch!

Them: That's socialism!

OP, like a PP said, there are people who do not care about others. You can't fix them.

+1 These same people have no interest in hearing about why increased tax cuts to billionaires are problematic and about the billions occurring in grift to cronies of the current administrations.

+2 And, please to pp who says "yOU CaN doNAte tO CHarItY." Do you see Trump or Elon or Vance or Bessent giving away any money to charity?