Reply to Closing USAID

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm just a regular person and the amount of dumb stuff this dept spends money on is pretty infuriating.  Why is there also over 10k employees for a dept most Americans have never heard of.  Good riddance and I hope they go back to the core mission under the state dept.[/quote]

Again, WHY are there over TEN THOUSAND employees for a dept most Americans have NEVER heard of?
[/quote]

Because most of them are out doing the work in the field - different countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, mostly along with the support staff that goes with it.[/quote]

This is not going to build support - especially when people learn of the ridiculous compensation and entitlements these employees get. Did you know we rent houses and apartments for these employees that happen to come with full time cleaners and personal chefs?  The State Department only approves local landlords with robust personal service riders.  So these “aid” workers are living in penthouse apartments in Bogota or gated mansions in Abuja with full household staffs - all at taxpayer expense. In Bogota that comes with a fleet of chauffeured SUVs that personally drive their kids to the $61,000 per year British International School that - again - US taxpayers pay for. [/quote]

Trump places secret service agents in his own luxury resorts while he plays golf and yet here you are talking about people living overseas and helping humanitarian aid? How can you explain that?[/quote]

We didn't buy the resort for Trump, though. Nor do we subsidize his mortgage. It's different to bill the taxpayers for the accommodations.

All this said, one thing I haven't seen mentioned is that a house staff is much cheaper overseas and is pretty standard for middle class and up. It would be weird to have diplomatic staff living below the normal lifestyle for their relative class in a host nation. [/quote]

Right - so let them use their very high salary to pay for the staff instead of tying the staff into the state department paid for and approved lease. [/quote]

Look, most people don't want to go live in Pakistan or Bangladesh. We can make it so that they get a household staff, and that makes it more appealing. They don't actually have "very high salaries".  They have normal middle class or upper middle class salaries. I agree with the cuts. But there's got to be some upside to taking your family to live in Chad or Guatemala. [/quote]

The question is whether we actually need these people (and their families) in Chad or Guatemala - are the projects worth sending a USAID employee and their family?  I think the news of the previous days indicate we do not. [/quote]

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