USAID to be eliminated??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked it up. US AID's budget is bigger than Malta's GDP, and similar to Bosnia's GDP.

And?

Thank you for playing the statistics game "number versus percentage"

Yes USAIDs budget in terms of a number is big, but in terms of percent of the total US budget, it is small. US foreign aid is typically 1-2% of the federal budget.

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/breakdown-foreign-aid-obligations

The US is actually among the least generous donors globally as a percentage of GDP, even though that means because we are a wealthy country we give a lot in terms of absolute number.

" The U.S. is both generous and penurious—it provides more official government assistance than any other country, but considerably less as a portion of our national income. There is a broad international commitment (to which the U.S. has never pledged) that wealthy countries should annually provide 0.7% of GDP to assist developing countries. For 2023, five countries—Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark—met or exceeded that benchmark. The average for all wealthy nations is around 0.3%, with the U.S. ranking at the bottom."

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-is-us-foreign-assistance/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20is%20both%20generous,that%20year%20was%20$47%20billion.

These statistics are exceedingly misleading because they don’t consider things like U.S. security assistance.

Security assistance and foreign assistance are two separate things. USAID does NOT do security assistance, so for those who don’t like tax dollars going to security assistance, you need to write to your representatives and ask that those agencies funding be cut.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No sympathy here. USAID was a major grift joke and most of the aid money ended up in pockets of local corrupt leaders and tribal chiefs. Add to that a very ideological bureaucracy.

I think foreign aid is important but it's worthwhile disbanding and rebuilding a donor agency from scratch. Not sure if the existing model can survive.

Not you again. Don't you have a dog to kick or kid to yell at?

I’m not the PP but our acquaintance lost their job as a contractor from the EO.

They bragged for years about their travel all over the world to “educate” the locals on support distribution. But they openly joked by the time they “trained” someone in country and aid arrived (if ever) whomever they “trained” was long gone - so they got to go back 2-3 times to train (or not) to the same country and typically they planned stops on their way of places to visit.

I am not saying there was not some good being done; but maybe 1 out 20 dollars spent was of value from what I heard.

This sounds like some "everyone in DC is in the swamp" type conspiracy fantasy. Most USAID employees are not stopping to book a suite in Paris on their way to their duties in the Sudan- BFFR. Most of them dont even earn that much money and are doing the same boring administrative stuff as everyone else at every other job. Stop coming up with these ridiculous storylines

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will merge with the State Dept

I thought it used to be, but they were using USAID as a cover for covert ops, so they separated the two.

[Anonymous]

USAID does a lot of good in the world. Unfortunately, Trump and MAGA don’t appreciate soft power. Dictators never do.

[Anonymous]

USAID.gov is gone - website pulled down. Reports that the USAID signage on the Ronald Regan building was pulled off last night.

I’ve spent my career working with USAID doing life saving programming. Preventing maternal death, infant death, fistula. And in a week my career has just…evaporated.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry, PP. Hopefully some of the work will be picked up by foundations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked it up. US AID's budget is bigger than Malta's GDP, and similar to Bosnia's GDP.

And?

Thank you for playing the statistics game "number versus percentage"

Yes USAIDs budget in terms of a number is big, but in terms of percent of the total US budget, it is small. US foreign aid is typically 1-2% of the federal budget.

https://www.crfb.org/blogs/breakdown-foreign-aid-obligations

The US is actually among the least generous donors globally as a percentage of GDP, even though that means because we are a wealthy country we give a lot in terms of absolute number.

" The U.S. is both generous and penurious—it provides more official government assistance than any other country, but considerably less as a portion of our national income. There is a broad international commitment (to which the U.S. has never pledged) that wealthy countries should annually provide 0.7% of GDP to assist developing countries. For 2023, five countries—Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark—met or exceeded that benchmark. The average for all wealthy nations is around 0.3%, with the U.S. ranking at the bottom."

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/what-is-us-foreign-assistance/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20is%20both%20generous,that%20year%20was%20$47%20billion.

doesn't matter whatever percentage of our GDP or budget it is, this is stupid waste and need to be eliminated. People can buy to non-profits to enable corruption in these countries but USG shouldn't.

[Anonymous]

Hero USAID Director standing up against the unjustified removal of 60 career officials at USAID and getting removed himself by DOGE hours later...what a sad state of affairs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/usaid-labor-director-pushed-fighting-back-removal-career-leadership-rcna190132

An order sidelining almost 60 senior career leaders at the U.S. Agency for International Development was temporarily rescinded Thursday by one of the few remaining senior career civil servants with the authority to do so, two current and two former USAID employees told NBC News.

Hours later, the same career employee was also placed on administrative leave.

“The materials show no evidence that you engaged in misconduct,” Nick Gottlieb, USAID's director of employee and labor relations, said in an email to the dozens of senior USAID employees placed on paid leave Monday. “As a result, I no longer have authority to maintain you in this status.”

Gottlieb acknowledged that he did not know how long his decision would hold.

“You may receive another email within the day reinstating your leave status. However, that notice will not come from me,” he wrote, adding, “I wish you all the best — you do not deserve this.”

[Anonymous]

This had to happen. The mission of USAID is not high in priority and a lot of bloat is going to cut down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This had to happen. The mission of USAID is not high in priority and a lot of bloat is going to cut down.

Yes, the soulless ghouls of the Republican party have decided to chop USAID and its aid to the poor and vulnerable of the world so that they can fund tax cuts for Elon Musk and other billionaires.

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry for my USAID colleagues. This is a travesty. Please take care of yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This had to happen. The mission of USAID is not high in priority and a lot of bloat is going to cut down.

Right. Making sure two year olds do t die of diarrhea for want of a bag of saline, or a woman doesn’t die in childbirth for want of a 50 cent per dose medication is not your priority. I get it.

It’s one of mine, and I used to think it was one of America’s too. It’s not America first you want it’s America only.

[Anonymous]

Americans deserve Trump. They are reaping what the sowed. Thankfully, we have assets in our country of origin too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hero USAID Director standing up against the unjustified removal of 60 career officials at USAID and getting removed himself by DOGE hours later...what a sad state of affairs.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/usaid-labor-director-pushed-fighting-back-removal-career-leadership-rcna190132

An order sidelining almost 60 senior career leaders at the U.S. Agency for International Development was temporarily rescinded Thursday by one of the few remaining senior career civil servants with the authority to do so, two current and two former USAID employees told NBC News.

Hours later, the same career employee was also placed on administrative leave.

“The materials show no evidence that you engaged in misconduct,” Nick Gottlieb, USAID's director of employee and labor relations, said in an email to the dozens of senior USAID employees placed on paid leave Monday. “As a result, I no longer have authority to maintain you in this status.”

Gottlieb acknowledged that he did not know how long his decision would hold.

“You may receive another email within the day reinstating your leave status. However, that notice will not come from me,” he wrote, adding, “I wish you all the best — you do not deserve this.”

No they do not deserve this. Nor do the people who were unjustifiably fired at DOJ and the FBI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This had to happen. The mission of USAID is not high in priority and a lot of bloat is going to cut down.

There is a legal process for reducing funding and reorganizing US agencies. The Administration is NOT following that, so no, it didn't have to happen this way. This is a publicity stunt to appease the far right. Less than 1% of the budget is hardly cutting down the bloat. (It's not nothing, obviously, but its also a very modest reduction.)