Whatever "aid" does eventually reach the intended in other countries, it usually just gets confiscated by low lifes and sold on the black market. Charity starts at home. End USAID.
Whacking USAID is like the broken window effect. Leave them broken, bad actors move in. Fix them and they go somewhete else.
It's also a simple litmus test. If you are screaming about this small, but emblematic part of the beaurocracy being fixed, youve proved A. You dont bother to read the fine print about how much it's wastes, and B. You're so partisan you might be a candidate to be written off and ignored.
I think this action was Trump marketing. Get the American people's attention and onboard to cutting waste. Choose actarget so egregious and full of examples, few could ignore. Unless you're part of A&B.
This is the Deep State lobbying for their own perpetuity with tax payer dollars. All of you who worship at the shrine of Bill Kristol need to hide your perfidious heads in shame.
I originally posted this on another Substack and repost it here as it really sums up the current state of play:
Now that DOGE has the skinny on all the NGOs funded by USAID and other parts of the government, I suspect that the new FBI will be making courtesy calls on the organizations checking to make sure that the grants were spent in the ways applied for. Obviously buying expensive SUVs for your top people to use for studying the pressing question of the green frog’s mating habits might raise some eyebrows. The potential crime in all these cases is defrauding the US Government; conviction of which can not only involve a stint in jail but also financial clawback. Some of these NGOs have undoubtedly made significant contributions to political candidates. So the New Justice Department will undoubtedly be busy. The juicy part of all this is that it will be a popular cause satisfying Trumps desire to retaliate in a way that is not going after “old enemies”. [...and in the process kills the Deep State.]
It will hopefully be a strong message sent, but the DOJ will have to sextuple to come close to finding and prosecuting the thousands of pockets of this type of activity. We ain't just talking about stealing pencils.
DOGE has access to the data on every dollar spent by the Federal Government. DOGE also has some of the sharpest data minds in the business. Given this along with AI will make it rather easy to pick out the most probable miscreants. You investigate these first and go from there.
I think there will be penalties at all levels if fraud is involved. At a minimum it will be admission of guilt, payback of funds, and further contractual agreements. In egregious cases it will be criminal charges and jail time if convicted. Look for the Trump Administration to rigorously go after these miscreants.
Its just more government Wasteful spending that funnels money to who it chooses and needs to be Totally cut that’s why we elected DJT. And he needs to get the job Done God Bless America
I love you Erick but sometimes I think you play a little fast and loose with the facts: other reputable sources say USAID was started by executive order by JFK but was codified by statute in 1991. Could you clarify that discrepancy?
The functions of the USAID were codified by Congress, not the organization itself. The other day Trump moved these functions to the Secretary of State so the functions as mandated by Congress still exist. Trump killed the USAID entirely. This is his right as it was originally created by President Kennedy. It no longer exists. All the employees have been terminated and the overseas employees recalled. It remains to be seen how many will be prosecuted in a conspiracy to defraud the US government. Receiving any type of kickback from a funded NGO would fall into this category. Count on reading about this in several months.
I can't even imagine the other abuses of taxpayer money that may get exposed. My biggest fear is that the establishment republicans are going to join the democrats in panicking and manage to stop this very much needed purge. The truly TDS possessed people both inside and outside of the government, and that includes some republicans, are every bit as opposed to the taxpayers knowing how their money is being spent as any of the hysterical democrats. Because one thing is clear about this. It isn't only democrats who have been failing to watch how this money has been spent. It has been going on for decades with zero oversight. Both parties have kept funneling the money to this bureaucracy as well as the rest without taking a second to find out how it is actually being used. I don't care what anyone says, the whole thing needs to be gutted, most thrown out forever, and stripped down to funding only those things the government really has authority to do.
Trump's actions can't be stopped by an act of Congress. But I am sure there a few Democrats in Congress that wish it could be stopped. Since 97% of USAID employee's political contributions have been going to Democrats I doubt that any Republicans are in on the USAID gravy train. If they are it would be through a USAID funded NGO. Most of these are leftest organizations so it is doubtful that any Republicans were funded - doubtful but not impossible.
Since republicans, so far, at least the ones in congress, aren't throwing giant hissy fits, I assume they aren't overly concerned at getting exposed. However, at least one never Trumper republican outside of congress was identified as being the "president" of an entity that benefited from USAID funds. And he threw a hissy fit on X.
What is the old saying: The squeaky wheel commits the crime? I believe it was Musk who said a couple of days ago that even though they now have all the files and payment receipts, "we can't possibly find all the bad actors but they will surface when they need the money." The funds were cut off over the weekend.
The question is why did it take Trump getting elected to find and do something about this stuff. Republicans are now acting like this was a big surprise. Much of this waste has been known for years. My wife works for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) - yes, that is not an oxymoron. They find plenty of waste and make recommendations to fix it but they have no enforcement mechanism and Congress certainly isn’t going to do it. Rand Paul has talked about programs that should have been axed as long ago as the 70s that are still being funded (they even had a specific cutoff date).
Trump is forcing the Israelis and Moslems to work out a solution to Gaza which is why he made that threat. The big problem there is everyone is fighting over the sins of the others fathers. They should have buried those sins with them.
We have the same problem here with the sin of slavery. Who is responsible since BOTH blacks and whites owned slaves. I read in a book eons ago that the biggest slave owner in the Carolinas was black.
Whatever "aid" does eventually reach the intended in other countries, it usually just gets confiscated by low lifes and sold on the black market. Charity starts at home. End USAID.
Whacking USAID is like the broken window effect. Leave them broken, bad actors move in. Fix them and they go somewhete else.
It's also a simple litmus test. If you are screaming about this small, but emblematic part of the beaurocracy being fixed, youve proved A. You dont bother to read the fine print about how much it's wastes, and B. You're so partisan you might be a candidate to be written off and ignored.
I think this action was Trump marketing. Get the American people's attention and onboard to cutting waste. Choose actarget so egregious and full of examples, few could ignore. Unless you're part of A&B.
It's come out that POLITICO.... you know, the online Left-wing new source.... has received $8.1 million over 236 transactions from USAID.
But wait... it's worse than you think.
It’s not that Politico received just $8.1 million from USAID.
Now it's been discovered that Politico has received another $34.3 million from various swampy federal government agencies...
This is the Deep State lobbying for their own perpetuity with tax payer dollars. All of you who worship at the shrine of Bill Kristol need to hide your perfidious heads in shame.
...... Bill Kristol.... ??
Bill Kristol was identified as the "president" of an entity that received money from USAID.
Amen, and amen. I appreciate the info about NGO's.
Kennedy probably started to support things that fought Communism.
Like buying food for those in need!!0
Yet Hamas used the condoms for explosive devices.
Obama: "I've got a pen, and a phone."
Trump: 'Hold my Sharpie.'
I originally posted this on another Substack and repost it here as it really sums up the current state of play:
Now that DOGE has the skinny on all the NGOs funded by USAID and other parts of the government, I suspect that the new FBI will be making courtesy calls on the organizations checking to make sure that the grants were spent in the ways applied for. Obviously buying expensive SUVs for your top people to use for studying the pressing question of the green frog’s mating habits might raise some eyebrows. The potential crime in all these cases is defrauding the US Government; conviction of which can not only involve a stint in jail but also financial clawback. Some of these NGOs have undoubtedly made significant contributions to political candidates. So the New Justice Department will undoubtedly be busy. The juicy part of all this is that it will be a popular cause satisfying Trumps desire to retaliate in a way that is not going after “old enemies”. [...and in the process kills the Deep State.]
It will hopefully be a strong message sent, but the DOJ will have to sextuple to come close to finding and prosecuting the thousands of pockets of this type of activity. We ain't just talking about stealing pencils.
DOGE has access to the data on every dollar spent by the Federal Government. DOGE also has some of the sharpest data minds in the business. Given this along with AI will make it rather easy to pick out the most probable miscreants. You investigate these first and go from there.
I sincerely hope you're right, Kern. Dealing with the entrenched federal behemoth is never simple, easy, timely nor inexpensive.
I surely do hope you are correct with this assessment. They shouldn't just get away with the fraud by being exposed then allowed to move on.
I think there will be penalties at all levels if fraud is involved. At a minimum it will be admission of guilt, payback of funds, and further contractual agreements. In egregious cases it will be criminal charges and jail time if convicted. Look for the Trump Administration to rigorously go after these miscreants.
🤞🤞🤞🤞
Its just more government Wasteful spending that funnels money to who it chooses and needs to be Totally cut that’s why we elected DJT. And he needs to get the job Done God Bless America
"and a pass-through source of Democratic Party donations domestically."
So, basically a money-laundering operation? Kinda like the money flowing to Teachers Unions.
Good grief....no wonder our federal fiscal budget is about to break under its own weight.
Can I copy the text to insert in some Facebook replies to some whiners if I acknowledge it was written by you? - - Erick Erickson
So much better written than anything I could write…
I love you Erick but sometimes I think you play a little fast and loose with the facts: other reputable sources say USAID was started by executive order by JFK but was codified by statute in 1991. Could you clarify that discrepancy?
The functions of the USAID were codified by Congress, not the organization itself. The other day Trump moved these functions to the Secretary of State so the functions as mandated by Congress still exist. Trump killed the USAID entirely. This is his right as it was originally created by President Kennedy. It no longer exists. All the employees have been terminated and the overseas employees recalled. It remains to be seen how many will be prosecuted in a conspiracy to defraud the US government. Receiving any type of kickback from a funded NGO would fall into this category. Count on reading about this in several months.
I can't even imagine the other abuses of taxpayer money that may get exposed. My biggest fear is that the establishment republicans are going to join the democrats in panicking and manage to stop this very much needed purge. The truly TDS possessed people both inside and outside of the government, and that includes some republicans, are every bit as opposed to the taxpayers knowing how their money is being spent as any of the hysterical democrats. Because one thing is clear about this. It isn't only democrats who have been failing to watch how this money has been spent. It has been going on for decades with zero oversight. Both parties have kept funneling the money to this bureaucracy as well as the rest without taking a second to find out how it is actually being used. I don't care what anyone says, the whole thing needs to be gutted, most thrown out forever, and stripped down to funding only those things the government really has authority to do.
Trump's actions can't be stopped by an act of Congress. But I am sure there a few Democrats in Congress that wish it could be stopped. Since 97% of USAID employee's political contributions have been going to Democrats I doubt that any Republicans are in on the USAID gravy train. If they are it would be through a USAID funded NGO. Most of these are leftest organizations so it is doubtful that any Republicans were funded - doubtful but not impossible.
Since republicans, so far, at least the ones in congress, aren't throwing giant hissy fits, I assume they aren't overly concerned at getting exposed. However, at least one never Trumper republican outside of congress was identified as being the "president" of an entity that benefited from USAID funds. And he threw a hissy fit on X.
What is the old saying: The squeaky wheel commits the crime? I believe it was Musk who said a couple of days ago that even though they now have all the files and payment receipts, "we can't possibly find all the bad actors but they will surface when they need the money." The funds were cut off over the weekend.
I agree 100 with you most politations are just thieves looking out for themselves
The question is why did it take Trump getting elected to find and do something about this stuff. Republicans are now acting like this was a big surprise. Much of this waste has been known for years. My wife works for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) - yes, that is not an oxymoron. They find plenty of waste and make recommendations to fix it but they have no enforcement mechanism and Congress certainly isn’t going to do it. Rand Paul has talked about programs that should have been axed as long ago as the 70s that are still being funded (they even had a specific cutoff date).
Trump is forcing the Israelis and Moslems to work out a solution to Gaza which is why he made that threat. The big problem there is everyone is fighting over the sins of the others fathers. They should have buried those sins with them.
We have the same problem here with the sin of slavery. Who is responsible since BOTH blacks and whites owned slaves. I read in a book eons ago that the biggest slave owner in the Carolinas was black.