POLICY: How about a GOFUNDME style of foreign aid?

Thursday, April 10, 2025

https://www.newsmax.com/murdock/usaid-atlas-network-doge/2025/04/03/id/1205534/

USAID Flops, But There May Be Alternatives
By Deroy Murdock Thursday, 03 April 2025 12:07 PM EDT

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Elon Musk is helping President Donald J. Trump rein in profligate, reckless, and corrupt federal spending via the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Democrats are not amused.

Left-wing domestic terrorists have responded by firing bullets into the windshields of electric vehicles at Musk’s Tesla dealerships. They have torched Tesla charging stations, set Teslas ablaze in parking lots, and used Molotov cocktails to ignite multiple Teslas beside a Las Vegas showroom.

Devolving into the party of arson is unwise for Democrats, especially after last month’s Harvard-Harris survey found that 76% of U.S. voters support chopping waste and fraud from federal expenditures.

One need not be Milton Friedman to be enraged by what DOGE uncovered in Haiti: Since 2010, USAID has made some $2 billion in grants tied to that star-crossed Caribbean nation. Only 2% of these funds actually reached Haitian companies and organizations.

Inefficiency is one thing. When Haitians see a mere $40 million of a $2 billion outlay, this smacks of money laundering.

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I remember CARE packages.  After WWII, Americans sent care package to Europe.  It was used to provide political cover for the Marshall Plan and all sorts of other “foreign aid”.

I have a “new” idea for “foreign aid”.   Let the USA Gooferment identify places that need real help.  Then let the “We, The Sheeple”, aka Taxpayers, decide who and how much.  Americans are very charitable even though the Gooferment “elbows” their way into “charity” and seizes larger and larger portions of the wealth and earnings of ordinary people.  Then, folks can pick and choose what and how much they can afford to donate. 

Last time I looked there is no Constitution justification for the Gooferment to spend on such.

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ECONOMICS: First time in decades that there is a glimmer of hope.

Sunday, February 9, 2025

FROM A EMAIL THREAD:

LUDDITE:

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Wow this is beyond mind blowing! The list of blatant wastes of billions of U.S. tax dollars is really hard to comprehend. It will probably reach trillions very soon, there are no words to describe what the scabs have been doing to us!

Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) / X

x.com

https://x.com › doge

Through 1/29/2025, 85 DEIA related contracts totaling ~$1B have been terminated within the Dept. of Ed, GSA, OPM, EPA, DoL, Treasury, DoD, USDA, Commerce,

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REINKEFJ:

Very sad indeed. And, a lot of “little people” are going to be displaced. It’s not just the “leadership” that gets fired. Argh!

Last tin foil hat estimate I read was that 3T$ could be freed up if 12 Departments, about 15 “agencies”, and a bushel basket full of other types of activities were eliminated.

Sigh!

A YOUNGER RELATIVE:

I don’t think anyone disagrees with cutting poor employees. But, as the reaction to grant programs being cut showed, red states are disproportionately impacted by government program cuts and those senators and congressman got an earful hence that idea was quashed. Today offices across the Midwest and south got hammered by calls regarding the tariffs. Farmers want their government handouts to continue. Biggest welfare group in the country and they have some power in the republican caucus so it’ll be interesting to see. President Musk is certainly leaving his mark but you’d think his lackey will want to regain some control soon. 

REINKEFJ:

Well, it’s about time that EVERYONE got off the dole.  The fiscal ship is sinking and if we don’t want a complete financial meltdown, everyone has to take their cuts.

Farmers, especially the corporate farmers like ADM, have been “milking” the system.  Parity payments for sugar are a classic example.  Paying farmers not to grow crops is another.  America could feed the world if the Gooferment would just get out of the way and allow the really free market to explode our productivity.

Sorry but EVERYONE is not entitled to a handout. Ponzi scheme of Social Security needs to be unwound. 

The Federal Reserve is a huge stumbling block to a healthy economy.  But probably too big for DJT47 to tackle.  Although I did read that his advisors were floating a trial balloon of 50 year bonds pegged to the price of gold as a way to retire the national debt.  If so, then the FED would be unnecessary.  Shade of Andrew Jackson, imaging no Federal debt to service.

I have high hopes that the DJT47 team can turn the Titanic away from the icebergs.

First time in decades that there is a glimmer of hope.

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I think this dialogue is instructive in that everyone sees the problem but no one wants their “Sacred Cow” to get killed.

Hopefully, if everyone is upset, then the country is getting back on track.  

The good ideas seem to keep flowing in. From “Kill the Department of Education” to defund NPR, nothing is too big or too small to get the AXE.

One thing I learned and was astonished to find out was that “USAID” was not “USA foreign aid” but “USA International Development” and was a CIA front for “foreign adventures”.  Surely that should be axed.

Another surprising revelation, was that all the Ukrainian cash aid didn’t get to Ukraine.  

Finally, the NGO’s like Red Cross and Catholic Charities were getting gazillions for “illegals” “resettlement”.  

No wonder the USA is going broke, too many grifters robbing us blind.

Argh!

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