Anonymous
02/06/2025 19:41
Subject: Re:Closing USAID
Look at SIGAR's report on counternarcotics in Afghanistan. It should give you more information about this.
https://www.sigar.mil/Reports/Article-Display/Article/4020322/counternarcotics-lessons-from-the-us-experience-in-afghanistan/
Anonymous
02/06/2025 19:14
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Again, WHY are there over TEN THOUSAND employees for a dept most Americans have NEVER heard of?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Why are you so critical of working people but then you let the richest man in the world take government subsidies?
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.
This is so stupid and obviously false. Not a single USAID employee’s compensation package is anywhere close to a million dollars.
https://www.commerce.gov/hr/practitioners/compensation-policies/general-pay/overseas-pay-for-civil-service-employees
There is nowhere in that link that makes ANY suggestion of a million dollar salary or benefit package.
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.
Housing allowance is not $65k a year - the highest allowance is $58k (which would apply to large families), and it's also not payable to the employee. That's the max that the USG can pay- in other words, it can be less or much less - and it includes rent, heat, light/electricity, gas, trash, local taxes, insurance, and any other fees required by law.
No one other than the Ambassador or the head of USAID is getting a chauffeur.
Yes, private school on par with a US education is probably $18k a year. I'm not sure what you expect people with families to do.
R&R is post-specific and you get plane tickets once per tour. The leave is your annual leave.
Yes, the US routinely sends American women posted overseas back to the US to have their baby, especially if local conditions are not considered on par with the US. Your own health insurance pays and per diem means you are paying to stay in a hotel or other commercial lodging.
In some respects the lifestyle can be quite nice and in some it can be very challenging. At one post, my kids rode to school in and Embassy van, followed by a truck of armed guards because the terrorism threat was so great. Then we got evacuated, lived in an apartment for 6 months while separated from their dad, he came back, there was a coup, and someone else packed our house up and we lost a ton of our belongings.
The real question is: does America want to be a global power with global influence or not? If so, you're going to have to send qualified, dedicated people to do that work. And you're going to have to treat them right. I have no problem with eliminating fraud, waste, or abuse, but I don't think you are going to find it in how we house, school, and arrange travel for our people.
Anonymous
02/06/2025 19:02
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:18:57 can go to hell.
truth hurts
https://asiatimes.com/2025/02/usaid-shutdown-isnt-just-a-humanitarian-issue-its-a-gift-to-china/
Anonymous
Anonymous
02/06/2025 19:00
Subject: Closing USAID
Whatever. You guys are so deep in. Just let him shut it all down- SS, Medicare, Education. Give it all to Musk. It's gonna happen anyway. I'd say maybe that will wake you up to the constant lies you consume but i think you'll still find a way to blame Biden while your bank accounts deplete. I don't care. Old people were never taught to fact check, so this is where we're at now, using Twitter screenshots as proof. Good God.
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:59
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:18:57 can go to hell.
What is false in that post? Challenge the content rather than blowing invictives.
Anonymous
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:58
Subject: Closing USAID
18:57 can go to hell.
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:58
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:Mike Benz is exposing the massive USAID corruption.
The only thing he is exposing is your unfathomable level of gullibility.
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:57
Subject: Closing USAID
Hey, farmers who voted for and support convicted felon Donald Trump. On Monday, the guy you wanted as president and his “special government employee,” Elon Musk, illegally shuttered the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID) and ordered the immediate firing or furlough of everyone of its employees working here and anywhere else in the world. They also completely halted all programs the agency operates, from providing HIV treatment to stopping the spread of Ebola to stemming famine to promoting democracy and American economic interests in 120 countries.
You probably like that, right? Take care of America and forget those foreigners, am I right?
Well, guess what also stopped abruptly when Trump and Musk gutted USAID? More than two billion dollars per year in USAID purchases of rice, wheat, lentils, and peas for foreign aid stopped. Right now. Immediately.
And from whom do you suppose USAID buys the commodities it uses for humanitarian aid distribution? It’s from you, bub. It’s from American farmers. And your Dear Leader just snatched that two billion dollar market out from under you.
What else do you suppose is going to happen now that all of USAID’s missions have suddenly ended without notice, leaving millions of desperate people who depend on American aid searching for help? Guess who’s going to step into that sudden void because of the new opening handed to them on a silver platter by Trump and Musk? Oops and surprise, it’s going to be our economic and philosophical adversaries like China and Russia. They are now much freer to insert their own footprint into those countries and to greatly increase their own influence. That also means making it easier for China to take over the foreign markets which, until now, used to be yours, thanks in large part to soft power overseas work of USAID. Yeah, China and Russia absolutely love it, baby.
Now, the question is, what are you going to do about it? Keep your mouths shut and your eyes down? Keep voting for leaders who engage in such colossally stupid, poorly executed and illegal acts which cause real actual harm to you and your livelihoods? Are you going to cheer them on despite what they’re doing to you? Are you going to just shrug your shoulders as their actions literally kill people, including the most vulnerable children of the world because, y’know, MAGA?
Did you vote for that? Are you going to bend over and take it? I mean, seriously. In spite of warning bells going off so loudly that you could’ve even heard them over the chugging of the giant tractors for which you’re probably deeply in debt, you went ahead and invited these guys to f**k you over anyway. So, will you come to your senses and fight back or roll over and say, Thank you, sir,” and ask for more of it?
You probably like that, right? Take care of America and forget those foreigners, am I right?
Well, guess what also stopped abruptly when Trump and Musk gutted USAID? More than two billion dollars per year in USAID purchases of rice, wheat, lentils, and peas for foreign aid stopped. Right now. Immediately.
And from whom do you suppose USAID buys the commodities it uses for humanitarian aid distribution? It’s from you, bub. It’s from American farmers. And your Dear Leader just snatched that two billion dollar market out from under you.
What else do you suppose is going to happen now that all of USAID’s missions have suddenly ended without notice, leaving millions of desperate people who depend on American aid searching for help? Guess who’s going to step into that sudden void because of the new opening handed to them on a silver platter by Trump and Musk? Oops and surprise, it’s going to be our economic and philosophical adversaries like China and Russia. They are now much freer to insert their own footprint into those countries and to greatly increase their own influence. That also means making it easier for China to take over the foreign markets which, until now, used to be yours, thanks in large part to soft power overseas work of USAID. Yeah, China and Russia absolutely love it, baby.
Now, the question is, what are you going to do about it? Keep your mouths shut and your eyes down? Keep voting for leaders who engage in such colossally stupid, poorly executed and illegal acts which cause real actual harm to you and your livelihoods? Are you going to cheer them on despite what they’re doing to you? Are you going to just shrug your shoulders as their actions literally kill people, including the most vulnerable children of the world because, y’know, MAGA?
Did you vote for that? Are you going to bend over and take it? I mean, seriously. In spite of warning bells going off so loudly that you could’ve even heard them over the chugging of the giant tractors for which you’re probably deeply in debt, you went ahead and invited these guys to f**k you over anyway. So, will you come to your senses and fight back or roll over and say, Thank you, sir,” and ask for more of it?
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:55
Subject: Closing USAID
Mike Benz is exposing the massive USAID corruption.
Anonymous
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:51
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I find it very odd and suspicious that USAID is suddenly in Elon’s crosshairs like this. Did Trump or GOP ever mention this agency during the last campaign or in recent Congressional hearings, budget negotiations?
It seems there must be some other underlying reason (for corrupt purposes and financial gain) that Elon is going after it so aggressively. I hope the media will start digging!
Well, someone had to go first. USAID was "someone".
When the cutting is done, the headcount for that agency will be approximately 294 employees, down from 14,000.
Two thumbs up!
Your glee at the unemployment of 13,706 people is nauseating. I am laying off all my staff because of the USAID shutdowns. The single moms, the dads with kids with cancer, the fresh-faced kids with their first apartment leases. And since my programs are shut down we aren’t stopping that Ebola outbreak in Uganda or preventing babies from getting Malaria in Nigeria. That’s what we all did all day. And we got paid the kind of salaries that people on this board scoff at, and we live in neighborhoods most of you won’t enter. Because we aren’t rolling in dough based on some big USAID fraud, right? We are nurses and social workers who use our skills in other countries.
What the F is WRONG with you?
DP. They sound like suckers.
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/60/1247252.page#29068779
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:51
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote: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.
Again, WHY are there over TEN THOUSAND employees for a dept most Americans have NEVER heard of?
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.
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.
Do you have any idea what it is like to work in the conditions these government employees work in? Yes, having a place to rotate back to while in country is critically important. Having a safe place for your family is critically important. You are way overblowing how these people and their families are living.
I am not - I have first hand knowledge. If these places are so unsafe - they should be unaccompanied assignments. If they are so unsafe, maybe we should not have a US citizen (accompanied by their children) overseeing US taxpayer funded projects to put on drag shows in these countries.
If you believe the bolded then you brainwashed and a lost cause.
It is true. Also, it is absolutely true these people are living in luxury housing with full time staff sending their kids to elite private schools - all taxpayer funded.
https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/icymi-u-s-taxpayer-funded-drag-show-exposed/
DRAG SHOWS funded with OUR tax dollars!!!!!
Anonymous
02/06/2025 18:49
Subject: Closing USAID
Anonymous wrote:
They do hold hearings, and issue reports, and have IG inspections. These things drag months and months and years and nothing fundamentally changes. It's almost like everyone is in on the game or simply does not care enough. Some of the claims of success that these programs make are highly dubious and USAID has had some really, truly wasteful whoppers out there.
One fundamental problem with USAID is that all of its claims to service U.S. interests and too nebulous and hard to measure. They're been getting away with making these claims for decades.
As recently as this past year, Marco Rubio was pushing for MORE USAID funding. He knows how important this is to US international security and yet, he keeps his mouth shut now, falling in line with those who are harming our national interests.