"And I spent a lot of time in my career defending it and explaining it. But it’s harder and harder to do across the board. It really is. But for those of us in charge of doing the work of foreign policy, we understand it is essential. The United States is not walking away from foreign aid. It’s not.
But it has to be programs that we can defend. It has to be programs that we can explain. It has to be programs that we can justify. Otherwise, we do endanger foreign aid.... We had a problem with some people in the office.... Does that mean that the actions of 5, 10, 20, 50 people indicted an entire organization? No. But we had people pushing through payments, despite being told not to do so.... [They were] almost inviting themselves to be getting in trouble so they can make a news story out of it. That is not the way we sought to pursue it. And as a result, it required us to do something else in return.... We’re just going to have to do it a little faster than we thought."
Said Marco Rubio, quoted in
"Transcript Shows Rubio Asking U.S.A.I.D. Worker for ‘Trust’ and ‘Patience’/Speaking at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City, the secretary of state called foreign aid 'the least popular thing' that government pays for" (NYT).
That happened yesterday. Today, I see
this at the NYT: "The Trump administration plans to retain only about 290 of the more than 10,000 employees worldwide at the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to three people with knowledge of the planned cuts to the work force. The cuts were communicated to agency leaders in a call on Thursday."
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23 comments:
$36 Trillion in debt, and spending $1.7 Trillion a year more than it takes in revenues. Lots of $50 Billion/year missions have to go. Not just a question of "bad" (though we're seeing plenty of that) vs. "good" expenditures--interest on the federal debt is already larger than the entire defense budget--more like cutting back to the core missions before everything goes upside down (i.e., no one wants to buy any more US Bonds). That's what people need to understand.
I read an article that claimed that only 2% of the aid earmarked for Haiti actually was sent to Haiti. The other 98% went to American outfits. Democrats may emote all over po’ black folks, but the actual dollars go to white people.
Marco Rubio is soon going to discover the difference between being a professional politician who trades in words and is ultimately not individually responsible for managing or resolving real world issues, and being Secretary of State, where he is.
Now perhaps he is getting the adrenaline rush of taking an axe to USAID, but tomorrow there will be international crises piling up that effect core American interests, and when he looks for levers to pull, he will find he has rather few.
Beautiful.
Rubio claims that USAID sees themselves as a global charity unaccountable to the U.S. or any of its institutions. That being the case, and given that they continue to stonewall him at every turn, his only choice is to blow it up and start over. I’m not sure that he is wrong.
The sad fact is that we’re it not for Musk and his team of high school kids, we still would not know just how bad things are.
Let’s get on with the demolition.
Not that long ago, it was reported (by some news organizations who were getting money from the government) that the then-current president was telling people in NC that there was no money available to help them. If that's so, why are we sending even a penny to help people in other countries?
We absolutely should spend money on foreign aid.
Once every American has a home.
Once every American child is healthy.
Once every American veteran has been made whole.
Once every American government debt is paid off.
And not a moment before then.
Joe Biden gave their money to Iranian terrorists. So there's no money. And nobody is even hunting him.
LOL
My God, the BS you peddle. Non-stop. And the whiplash inducing contradictions!
It's the best!
Did you happen to catch the results for X from their 2024 year end earnings call?
Talk about exposing you as an absolute buffoon! You know, upon reflection, that may be the best!
The good news? We have options for selecting which of the "best" embarrassing moments/posts/predictions/"analyses"(your cut and pastes from others that actually, you know, like, know stuff) of yours to highlight!
"Rubio claims that USAID sees themselves as a global charity unaccountable to the U.S. or any of its institutions."
Rubio was being kind.
USAID is a $40B slush fund used by the CIA/State Dept to disrupt and overthrow any government that won't play ball (set themselves up for continous establishment money laundering) with the Samantha Powers/Hillary Clinton "elite" types as well as a bottomless funding well for the types of grooming/psycho leftist policies that our own Althouse lefties and New Soviet Democraticals so enjoy and keeping paid off all the "elites" that are connected in leftist/dem circles in the US and Western Europe.
The amount of and high pitch tone of the squealing by our New Soviet Democraticals is proof that alot of corruptocrats are getting cut off the new Sheriff in town.
2% is a bit more than the Pareto principle suggests. But if the stories are true that only about 2% of foreign aid made it as actual aid to foreign entities, then the numbers seem right. Not Rubio's numbers, but then that's why we have DOGE doing the calculations.
With the guy from USAID said this to Rubio, he probably thought it sounded persuasive.
"He listed the agency’s programs in Guatemala and said they contributed to giving Guatemalans incentives to remain in the country rather than migrating north."
So, the US can make Guatemala so nice, nobody wants to leave, or, the US can defend the border. Even if there is no corruption involved, we don't want to pay to fix up Guatemala. Even if North Carolina had been rebuilt, we don't want to fix up Guatemala.
I've got nothing against Guatemala. Flying in emergency rations to a disaster area is worth considering, but not fixing up a country so they don't invade us.
Didn't Musk email the staff about 2 weeks ago to say ExTwitter was nearly bankrupt?
The US hasn't flown in emergency rations to North Carolina. I'd like to just point that out.
I've got nothing against Guatemala, but you can keep their citizens from invading our country very easily by cutting them down using A10 Aircraft that fire 5000 bullets a minute.
Well good for Rubio, although it still that whiff of elitism that the DC Republicans love so well. I think the happiest moments in Mitch McConnell or some moderate Republicans life is when they tell their voters, "you're stupid, we're smart, so we're doing the opposite of what you want". Certainly, the Bushes, Romney, McCain, and Ford had that attitude.
But then, they want an Empire, and most people dont.
If all the USA did with its foreign aid was feed and give medical care to people in other countries, no one would have a problem. But that's about 10 percent of what our aid is for. Go look at the zillions we give to Ukraine, israel, eygpt, etc.
BTW, its hilarious how the Democrats have become the war party, the party of empire, and the party of authoritarian Government, all with the approval of the so-called progressives in New England, PNW, and the Mid-west. Just confirming that they aren't "Bleeding hearts" or "the party of the working man". They just follow the party line set by the elites who live in DC, NYC, and Calf.
Caucasoid, please... The difference between a politician and someone who resolves real world issues, like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry for example? Who pretended to be secretary of state when Creepy Joe usurped the presidency, and what real world problems did they resolve in their 4 years?
LLR-democratical Rich: "Didn't Musk email the staff about 2 weeks ago to say ExTwitter was nearly bankrupt?"
LOL
Are you even trying Abacus Boy?
Elon nearly doubled Twitter’s EBITDA and he grew margins from 13% (Twitter last year) to 46% in 2024.
This is on top of investor value lost at time of signing having fully recovered.
Investor Mark Pincus, a guy who really has "been in those rooms when big deals were made", unlike LLR-democratical Rich who lied about being there: "Looks like @elonmusk moved Twitter from a a $5b company that made $0 after stock based comp to a $2.7b company making $1.25b. Pretty good!"
Remember gang, self-styled business whiz LLR-democratical Rich (wink wink) literally called such results impossible.
"He listed the agency’s programs in Guatemala and said they contributed to giving Guatemalans incentives to remain in the country rather than migrating north.”
I am picturing less “persuade” and more “bribe”.
Can you imagine? $1.25B EBITDA off just $2.7B in revenues! Compared to where they were under Jack Dorsey? How much cash willX be throwing off when they return to $4/$5B in revenue with new, much more highly profitable product offerings in the mix as well as a continuation of the return of advertisers?
Btw, Dorsey's decision to keep his investment in X rolling is looking quite prescient these days, isn't it?
Not to Rich of course. I mean, what could Dorsey possibly know that self-styled "whizkid" Rich doesn't.......(yes, you can laugh now)
Dixcus: "you can keep their citizens from invading our country very easily by cutting them down using A10 Aircraft that fire 5000 bullets a minute."
I'd go with drone swarms. Don't have to worry about US pilots getting shot down and captured.
Or mines, on our own side of the border. Eminent-domain the land - pay for it with some of that USAID money. Fence and mark the minefields just like Ft Leonard Wood: "Peligro! Minas!" If the cartels or individual invaders want to crawl around poking the dirt with a poking stick, have at it.
JSM
Anyone got a word salad translator? 🥃🥃
I think that was the Clinton Foundation grift.
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