OMB freezes all disbursements / USAID shutdown / GOP begs for exceptions for their states

Here's is a right-wing media article from 2023 that talks about a lot of these things, including the LGBTQ comic book in Peru

freebeacon.com

Biden Admin Spends $4.6 Million in Taxpayer Cash To Fund LGBT Activism Abroad

The Biden administration has given nearly $4.6 million to help foreign groups promote LGBT projects like drag shows and pride parades.
freebeacon.com freebeacon.com

Here is the quote from a state department official explaining why these types of grants were made:

A State Department spokesman defended the funding in comments to the Free Beacon, saying these programs "advance the foreign policy priority of reducing discrimination and violence and promoting inclusion."

"Indigenous persons, religious and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQI+ persons, and persons with disabilities, among others, live with disproportionate violence that requires targeted support," the spokesman said. "U.S. citizens benefit from a world that is safer and more prosperous for all."
 
rodoheel said:
Here's is a right-wing media article from 2023 that talks about a lot of these things, including the LGBTQ comic book in Peru

freebeacon.com

Biden Admin Spends $4.6 Million in Taxpayer Cash To Fund LGBT Activism Abroad

The Biden administration has given nearly $4.6 million to help foreign groups promote LGBT projects like drag shows and pride parades.
freebeacon.com freebeacon.com

Here is the quote from a state department official explaining why these types of grants were made:

A State Department spokesman defended the funding in comments to the Free Beacon, saying these programs "advance the foreign policy priority of reducing discrimination and violence and promoting inclusion."

"Indigenous persons, religious and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQI+ persons, and persons with disabilities, among others, live with disproportionate violence that requires targeted support," the spokesman said. "U.S. citizens benefit from a world that is safer and more prosperous for all."
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And that is utter horseshit. Do you support tax dollars being spent on that project?
 
Callatoroy said:
And that is utter horseshit. Do you support tax dollars being spent on that project?
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I know you’re not asking me, but I absolutely support tax dollars being spent on anything designed to try to make the world a safer and more prosperous place for everyone, which tremendously benefits us as Americans. Granted, I acknowledge that different people can have different perspectives and viewpoints on what constitutes spending money on something worthy of furthering that aforementioned goal. But overall, I definitely believe that spending the equivalent of peanuts on things that advance American soft power and goodwill abroad, are well worth the investment.
 
Callatoroy said:
And that is utter horseshit. Do you support tax dollars being spent on that project?
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I have no objection to taxpayer dollars being spent on trying to make the world a more welcoming and less discriminatory place. Eliminating prejudices and opening minds is critical to making the world a more peaceful and less hostile place. Peace and harmony are extremely valuable to every American citizen.

I can't speak to whether this particular project deserved the money over others because I don't know what the other options were. But the amount of money we're talking about (like $30k) is so miniscule that I have a hard time understanding how anyone could get worked up about it either way.
 
Callatoroy said:
And that is utter horseshit. Do you support tax dollars being spent on that project?
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Do you understand how stabilization of other countries ultimately benefits us because it drastically reduces our defense budget? Look at the programs being highlighted. Think about which countries are getting the specific targeted aid and why. Consider how each benefits us in specific ways. You still won't agree with everything on that list. But you will begin to see, at least in regards to some of them, that those projects have the potential to mitigate defense and other types of spending in those areas.
 
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Every government agency - for that matter, every large private company - spends money on stupid shit. That's a rationale for zero-based budgeting, not canning an entire agency. I mean, let's start applying the same logic to Palantir and the Defense Department, for god's sake.

We are abandoning the institutions of American soft power that took us 80 years to build up. We are exiting the soft power game at the very time that China is dramatically increasing their soft power investment. Are we getting the requisite bang for the buck from our USAID investments? That's a fair question. But before we allow a bunch of tech geeks to trash that 80 year investment over a couple of twitter posts, wouldn't it make sense to have a policy discussion on what it means for our strategic interests?
 
CFordUNC said:
I know you’re not asking me, but I absolutely support tax dollars being spent on anything designed to try to make the world a safer and more prosperous place for everyone, which tremendously benefits us as Americans. Granted, I acknowledge that different people can have different perspectives and viewpoints on what constitutes spending money on something worthy of furthering that aforementioned goal. But overall, I definitely believe that spending the equivalent of peanuts on things that advance American soft power and goodwill abroad, are well worth the investment.
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Its not peanuts. You are thinking singularly. Taken as a whole it adds up. And we all want the world to be a safer place and to talk in general platitudes. There is no reasonable person who believes spending money on trans operas in Columbia, trans comics in Peru, DEI musicals in Ireland, dei training in Serbia, etc. makes us safer. These are nothing but left wing woke bullshit projects designed to advance the left wing woke bullshit agenda. Period. Don't talk about your conservative principles and then legitimize this type of stuff.

What percentage of American voters would you guess if asked "Do you support spending American tax dollars on funding a transgender opera in Columbia, transgender comics in Peru, and dei musicals in Ireland in order to make the country safer" My guess is it would be pretty low. Like in the teens.
 
Callatoroy said:
Its not peanuts. You are thinking singularly. Taken as a whole it adds up. And we all want the world to be a safer place and to talk in general platitudes. There is no reasonable person who believes spending money on trans operas in Columbia, trans comics in Peru, DEI musicals in Ireland, dei training in Serbia, etc. makes us safer. These are nothing but left wing woke bullshit projects designed to advance the left wing woke bullshit agenda. Period. Don't talk about your conservative principles and then legitimize this type of stuff.

What percentage of American voters would you guess if asked "Do you support spending American tax dollars on funding a transgender opera in Columbia, transgender comics in Peru, and dei musicals in Ireland in order to make the country safer" My guess is it would be pretty low. Like in the teens.
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Your Transgender Tourette’s is flaring up. I never said a word about transgender anything. I don’t even know what in the hell you are talking about with transgender operas and transgender comics. That all sounds so absurdly ridiculous as to not even really be believable. I’d have to see some non-Breitbart sourcing on that because it sounds so outlandishly absurd- you know, kind of like when you said we were spending $1 billion on condoms in Gaza.

I’m talking broadly about the money that we spend abroad to advance American soft power and build international goodwill. You’re acting like you, as someone who has exactly zero experience in international relations, have a better handle or idea on how to spend foreign aid dollars than the people who have been doing it in Republican and Democratic administrations for decades. You don’t. I don’t.

And, brother, do not talk down to me about my conservative principles when you are on this board every single day ballwashing the most anti-conservative presidential administration in American history. The difference in my conservatism and your conservatism is that mine never changed one iota in order to accommodate an orange obese carnival barker from New York. Yours did.
 
rodoheel said:
Why the insistence that benefits be measurable? There's part of your problem right there. Refusing to acknowledge any benefits that aren't measurable is foolish. How does one measure the benefit of winning wars, or maintaining peace, or exploring the moon, or discovering new elements, or protecting endangered species?
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I would argue that funding pet projects like comic books and musicals in foreign countries are, in themselves, outside the purview of the federal government. It's borderline ridiculous, to be honest.

However, if we are going to spend money in foreign countries, it needs to produce a measurable result because, at the very least, we're talking about taxpayer money. If we can't point to something and say "That is the result of the money spent", we shouldn't be spending it.
 
BlooVooDoo said:
If it helps make where they live more tolerable by reducing violence and discrimination, yes. Otherwise they may walk 1000 miles to our border, legally apply for asylum and then we’ll have to hear you bitch about that.
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Not our job to manage their culture wars. And, not our problem if they march 1000 miles to apply for asylum if the border is being managed properly, which it now is. Spin this anyway you want but to defend this type of stuff further defines your party as out of touch and not benefiting the taxpayer who feels their party doesn't represent them which as you know put trump back in office. I would like to see you guys acting more bat shit crazy than you are now. I fully support aoc and warren and whoever else having protest after protest. We need weekly protests getting all kinds of national coverage. Rage on over trump and musk putting an end to taxpayer funded lunacy.
 
4thgenheel said:
rodo posting extremely thoughtful, detailed and well-informed takes on just what exactly USAID and soft power do for our country and zen essentially responding "nuh uh, muh tax money" is hilarious stuff.

thanks guys.
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And they are trusting the same people who said we were sending $50M dollars worth of condoms to Gaza (in Israel) so Hamas can make bombs with them. And these same people are still making that claim even after being told the truth.
 
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ZenMode said:
I would argue that funding pet projects like comic books and musicals in foreign countries are, in themselves, outside the purview of the federal government. It's borderline ridiculous, to be honest.

However, if we are going to spend money in foreign countries, it needs to produce a measurable result because, at the very least, we're talking about taxpayer money. If we can't point to something and say "That is the result of the money spent", we shouldn't be spending it.
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What makes something a "pet project"?

As for the second part, again, I think the premise that every benefit of money spent in a foreign country has to have a "measurable" benefit is ridiculous. What can you point to of the measurable benefit of fighting in Europe in WWII? What can you point to as the measurable benefit of the Marshall Plan? What can you point to as the measurable benefit of our post-WWII presence and investment in Japan? What can you point to as the measurable benefit of relief we provide after tsunamis in Bangladesh, or through USAID's Earthquake Disaster Assistance Team?
 
Callatoroy said:
What percentage of American voters would you guess if asked "Do you support spending American tax dollars on funding a transgender opera in Columbia, transgender comics in Peru, and dei musicals in Ireland in order to make the country safer" My guess is it would be pretty low. Like in the teens.
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And the answer to having a philosophical disagreement with a small minority of USAID grants is to ... unconstitutionally shutter the agency, destroy its entire mission, and fire everyone who works there?
 

How Trump Gutted America’s $40 Billion Aid Agency in Two Weeks​

Dismantling of USAID, including putting all staff on leave, appears to be a test case for new administration​


GIFT LINK 🎁—> https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy...f5?st=uyRgvz&reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink

“The cuts came so fast that one dismissed employee had to be rehired to process other employees’ time sheets.

… USAID appears to be a test case for whether the Trump administration can effectively restructure a decades-old agency without meeting much legal or political resistance. So far, the answer seems to be yes.

Some outside groups say they can’t get paid for work they have already done. The few officials who remain are forwarding past-due invoices, trying to walk a line between potentially violating a directive from President Trump and violating federal contracting rules.

Stefanie Leigh Plant, a 40-year old contractor for USAID’s global health program, was fired via email, with her health insurance severed three days later. “That’s when the incredulity began setting in,” she said.

… Some of the Trump administration’s actions, such as furloughing contractors, have been broadly legal, but others appear to be impinging on Congress’s authority, said Matthew Kavanagh, director of the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics at Georgetown University.

“They see the U.S. aid agencies and infrastructures as weaker than the rest of the government, so they are trying to see what they can get away with,” Kavanagh said. …”
 
Continued

“… Work that was halted, according to employees and contractors, included the U.S.’s efforts to stop the spread of an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, an outbreak of the Marburg virus disease in Tanzania, and a multicountry outbreak of Mpox.

Most employees of a field hospital in Gaza were abruptly terminated last week, said Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon working nearby. The hospital administrator sent a text message to the terminated staff, saying they would be paid a final $400.

Waivers have now been granted to allow certain emergency humanitarian programs to get funds, although employees and recipients said they had received limited guidance about how to interpret which programs qualify.

… Nicholas Gottlieb, the agency’s director of employee and labor relations, later sent an email saying that after review, he found the decision to put dozens of senior employees on leave unjustified and that there had been no evidence of misconduct.

Two hours later, he emailed to say that he himself had been put on leave, according to employees.

… Termination notices often arrived outside normal working hours. Some contractors started hearing that their colleagues had lost their jobs in the morning and watched the hours tick by until their notices arrived at night. For some overseas, dismissal has meant trying to figure out how to get back to the U.S. with their families.

…On Saturday, DOGE representatives sought access to sensitive systems at USAID’s building in Washington.

Security officials at the agency initially resisted the DOGE team’s requests, which some people familiar with the confrontation said included demands for access to personnel information.

The security officials, John Voorhees and his deputy, then were put on administrative leave for not complying, people familiar with the episode said.

“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” Musk said on social media. “USAID is a criminal organization.” …”
 
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