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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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?
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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]

Why are you so critical of working people but then you let the richest man in the world take government subsidies?[/quote]

Huh - is this your comeback? USAID employees abroad compensation packages can near a million dollars.  And this post is about USAID.  As for Musk - I probably don't agree with many subsidies, but not the point of this discussion topic. [/quote]

This is so stupid and obviously false. Not a single USAID employee’s compensation package is anywhere close to a million dollars. [/quote]

https://www.commerce.gov/hr/practitioners/compensation-policies/general-pay/overseas-pay-for-civil-service-employees
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There is nowhere in that link that makes ANY suggestion of a million dollar salary or benefit package.[/quote]

Housing allowance in Bogota is 65k + a year. Education allowance is $18k per kid per year. Hardship pay is 15% of salary.  Chauffeured vehicles for all transportation needs about 20k a year. Medical care and expenses can be very high. If a spouse is pregnant they get an all expense paid trip back to the states (full per diem for 4 months) to have the baby.  They also get paid plane tickets and travel to take leave.   Not saying that we do not need foreign service - but being a foreign assigned USAID employee is not a life of sacrifice and comes with significant cost/compensation. [/quote]

The stuff gets really good when USAID couples who double dip, meaning a husband and wife couple work for the agency. They will serve their time and retire to start drawing on their retirement and then come back as contractors to the agency and still draw a salary and benefits as contractors, in addition to drawing on the retirement. It's quite a nice hustle, if you can manage it. [/quote]

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