Is there any more perfect symbol for the true face of USAID humanitarian aid than a personally engraved USAID Hand Grenade awarded to John Bolton? https://t.co/dVBAfTRokq pic.twitter.com/lvn3HyWGzn

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) February 11, 2025

I saw a reference again to Haiti, alleging that the Clinton Foundation got 48% of Haiti money, another 60% went to other NGOs, and 2% to Haiti. Is that true?

Did these NGOs do tons of work in Haiti?

My reading at the time was that it was a sh-t show, but I still held out hope the Clinton's would do good.

Barn burner press conference with POTUS and Elon Musk in the Oval where they are alleging widespread fraud, including one infamous individual (*cough*) who's net worth spiked from a few Million, to $30 Million. (*cough*)

President Trump believes possibly up to a Trillion dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse.

To paraphrase Solzhenitsyn, we know that they are stealing. They know that they are stealing. They even know that we know they are stealing. But they are still stealing. https://t.co/buzMG6eHVJ

— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) February 11, 2025

This is delish. About halfway in, light in the loafers Congressman Graham says Samatha Powers 'has been texting him morning, noon, and night'. (*cough*)

Fascinating kickback quote. Who is this guy, a Senator?

Elon Musk and @libsoftiktok are wondering how “Anthony Fauci's net worth surged during Covid and he became a multimillionaire”

This is how:

Hearing on ‘Emails from Anthony Fauci containing evidence of bribery, kickbacks and so much money that it needed to be shared’

“Too much… pic.twitter.com/o5KPEcPErB

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) February 12, 2025

Appoint a conservative as head of USAID to fund some conservative media programs and watch the Democrats demand it to be shut down.

Was I the only person not getting USAID money? https://t.co/SjyWa4ADMh

— Mostly Peaceful Memes (@MostlyPeacefull) February 12, 2025

sycasey said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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sycasey said:

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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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HawaiiBear33 said:

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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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HawaiiBear33 said:

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Truth

I agree with this pic.twitter.com/3zPE41Fc61

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) February 9, 2025

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Yet you think DOGE having all private citizens tax documents, social security info and bank account data is perfectly OK.

Exactly why do you need to know everything about me? Why should you be trusted? What will it achieve for you?

---

Why would you believe this ridiculous smokescreen?

They don't give 2 effs about you or me.

They care about the trillions of stolen money

Why don't you care?

There’s something very Hypocritical and Evil hiring 87,000 IRS agents to audit us down to $600 but now freak out when Elon and a tiny crew audits them exposing 100’s $BILLIONS of government waste and corruption.
Could it be any more obvious that the Democrats are criminals? pic.twitter.com/nTY50qhSL4

— Wayne Dunlap (@wdunlap) February 10, 2025

---

You're the one that posted about how private citizens should have full privacy from the government and that public servants like me should have no privacy rights. Was that a ridiculous smokescreen? Why post that if that wasn't what you meant? Personally, I'm offended that you think I have fewer rights than you and movielover do. As for fraud, there was nothing about fraud in that cutesy meme you posted. Sure, I'm against fraud. Prove that I and a couple of million other federal employees have committed fraud before you throw us under the bus.

I've spent the last 25 years doing my level best to keep people safe from harm for far less money than I could have made elsewhere. The last few weeks have been shocking in how little respect many of you all have for myself and the vast majority of other federal workers. I'm doing some soul searching my life choices these days though I still feel like I made the right choice back then. If you get your way, good luck getting AI to do what I do.

---

I do find it pretty ridiculous that people who supposedly voted for the "populist" president are rooting so hard for thousands of people to lose their jobs, based on the recommendations of the richest tech billionaire.

---

Who is "losing their job"?
People who voluntarily and knowingly violate a valid Presidential Executive Order? Tough *****

---

So the Trump team claims. I will wait for evidence.

Again, though, pretty amusing how much people are just willing to take the richest tech billionaire's word for this. If it were George Soros making an unverified claim there's no way you'd be so trusting.

---

You repeatedly play this tiresome game of "so they claim" or "I will wait for evidence" or "I don't believe your evidence", etc.. You don't impose that standard on your own questionable and unsupported claims/positions and you very seldom provide your own evidence. You provide no evidence that USAID and other federal agencies are so well run they shouldn't be audited.

And then when I or others provide evidence, you turn to "I don't believe it" or "they're just saying that" or some other formulation to evade the evidence without providing any of your own.

What evidence do you have that the objectional USAID payments identified by DOGE were not in fact made? Not even the dems are questioning that the payments were made, yet here you are claiming you don't believe the bad billionaire as if he's the sole source (which he's not). You have no actual evidence, so you attack the messenger. Because you can't defend the payments.

If you were honest, you'd just say "I like big government." Or "I like that government funds my partisan progressive views and don't care that it is in any way improper or unfair". That is the real motivation for most opposing DOGE investigations. You/they are just deflecting.

sycasey said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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DOGE claims FEMA made 59 million payments last week. The first workday last week was Monday, Feb 3, some 2 weeks after the EO. It is literally true that we do not now that claims to be true but that is such as patently basic thing to verify that we can likely have a high level of confidence in its veracity.

So four people were fired for making the payments they were ordered not to make. I have zero sympathy for them. Good for the government for holding people accountable.

---

What if the money they were spending was money that had already been explicitly earmarked and authorized by Congress and these employees correctly believe that it would actually be illegal to stop payments? Should they be fired for that?

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Very little, if any, of the money was specifically earmarked. That is just a lie.

Please provide evidence that Congress directed payments for the following specific purposes:

• LGBTQ organizations in Serbia.
• A DEI musical in Ireland
• A transgender Opera in Columbia
• A transgender comic book in Peru
• Sesame Street in Iraq
• "Gender affirming" care in Guatemala
• fighting "disinformation" in Kazakhstan

Hint: You won't find Congress doing that. Because that is not how most spending authorizations work. There are very limited earmarks - and candidly the FEMA payments to NY may be one of the specifically mandated appropriations (not sure if NY was a mandated recipient).

Most appropriations are general spending authorizations where Congress delegates discretion to the executive branch/agencies as to how the money is spent. Most USAID $$ is in this category and, as such, Trump (as the head of the executive branch) has full discretion as to how to spend the money. And even when an appropriation is specific, the agency has some discretion as to when and to whom the payments is made (i.e., picking the third party contractor, etc.)

In terms of the hypothetical employee who thinks they're being given an unlawful order, their choice is to seek the advice of a supervisor or their agencies legal team, resign, become a whistleblower, or otherwise report the unlawful order. What they cannot do is decide that they are entitled to overrule the president and just make the disbursement.

wifeisafurd said:

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movielover said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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Also, this is the government, not the private sector. For what it's worth, everyone I've seen that's taking the buyout was planning to retire in the next year or two anyway.

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I have family members that work for state government and are unionized. Those two things do not equal lifetime employment and the ability to behave however one wants in the workplace.

I wish my employer made me that offer. As someone who's inside 2 years to retire I'd jump at it too.

Reports indicate about 3% of the federal workforce has taken their offer. The Admin's goal was 5-10%. Let's pretend the Admin simply refuses to backfill these positions. We get an interesting legal question...what happens if the Executive refuses to spend money allocated by Congress? A simple answer could be Congress' control of the purse prevails. But what happens now with unspent agency money? (there's no way every agency spends exactly the amount allocated).

---

What happens if he routes unspent monies to the debt, or ICE?

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Yes, rerouting really is the issue. The federal government units often don't spend all their specified funding and go over budget allocations as well. The practical answer is under fund accounting a lot of these different expenditures are put in the same fund and some allocations are used for different purposes within the same agency. No one really objects to this practice (very little money involved relatively speaking). Black letter law is funds allocated by Congress to one agency can be used by another agency only if there is specific statutory authorization. This can happen during a reorganization when one agency transfers its functions to another for example. I have never heard of repurposing funds into another agency for a different purpose and I assume Congressional authority is required. You would assume Trump has the votes to get that, but you never know or even if Trump will try to get authority. Lot of assumptions in these weird times.

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Didn't Trump try to do exactly this with the wall and I believe he was shot down in the courts?

USAID: The swamp is deep. One of the activist judges blocking Trump's agenda, Judge John Bates, is married to the founder of a USAID-funded NGO. Carol Rhees is a Democrat lawyer who started Hope for Children in Ethiopia a long-time USAID grant recipient.

h/t @pepesgrandma pic.twitter.com/i51Q05dtRC

— @amuse (@amuse) February 12, 2025

BearGoggles said:

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sycasey said:

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tequila4kapp said:

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sycasey said:

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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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HawaiiBear33 said:

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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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HawaiiBear33 said:

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Truth

I agree with this pic.twitter.com/3zPE41Fc61

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) February 9, 2025

---

Yet you think DOGE having all private citizens tax documents, social security info and bank account data is perfectly OK.

Exactly why do you need to know everything about me? Why should you be trusted? What will it achieve for you?

---

Why would you believe this ridiculous smokescreen?

They don't give 2 effs about you or me.

They care about the trillions of stolen money

Why don't you care?

There’s something very Hypocritical and Evil hiring 87,000 IRS agents to audit us down to $600 but now freak out when Elon and a tiny crew audits them exposing 100’s $BILLIONS of government waste and corruption.
Could it be any more obvious that the Democrats are criminals? pic.twitter.com/nTY50qhSL4

— Wayne Dunlap (@wdunlap) February 10, 2025

---

You're the one that posted about how private citizens should have full privacy from the government and that public servants like me should have no privacy rights. Was that a ridiculous smokescreen? Why post that if that wasn't what you meant? Personally, I'm offended that you think I have fewer rights than you and movielover do. As for fraud, there was nothing about fraud in that cutesy meme you posted. Sure, I'm against fraud. Prove that I and a couple of million other federal employees have committed fraud before you throw us under the bus.

I've spent the last 25 years doing my level best to keep people safe from harm for far less money than I could have made elsewhere. The last few weeks have been shocking in how little respect many of you all have for myself and the vast majority of other federal workers. I'm doing some soul searching my life choices these days though I still feel like I made the right choice back then. If you get your way, good luck getting AI to do what I do.

---

I do find it pretty ridiculous that people who supposedly voted for the "populist" president are rooting so hard for thousands of people to lose their jobs, based on the recommendations of the richest tech billionaire.

---

Who is "losing their job"?
People who voluntarily and knowingly violate a valid Presidential Executive Order? Tough *****

---

So the Trump team claims. I will wait for evidence.

Again, though, pretty amusing how much people are just willing to take the richest tech billionaire's word for this. If it were George Soros making an unverified claim there's no way you'd be so trusting.

---

You repeatedly play this tiresome game of "so they claim" or "I will wait for evidence" or "I don't believe your evidence", etc.. You don't impose that standard on your own questionable and unsupported claims/positions and you very seldom provide your own evidence. You provide no evidence that USAID and other federal agencies are so well run they shouldn't be audited.

---

I provided no evidence because I never made that claim. This is your trick: assigning a view to your debate opponent that they never offered up.

My position on Elon and DOGE is that they are behaving recklessly and stopping things that are actually good and necessary (and in some cases may actually be illegal to stop). Auditing is not the issue. You want to define it that way because it makes your guy look good.

Sometimes when you make breakfast you break a few eggs.

sycasey said:

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BearGoggles said:

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sycasey said:

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tequila4kapp said:

---

sycasey said:

---

Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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HawaiiBear33 said:

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Eastern Oregon Bear said:

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HawaiiBear33 said:

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Truth

I agree with this pic.twitter.com/3zPE41Fc61

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) February 9, 2025

---

Yet you think DOGE having all private citizens tax documents, social security info and bank account data is perfectly OK.

Exactly why do you need to know everything about me? Why should you be trusted? What will it achieve for you?

---

Why would you believe this ridiculous smokescreen?

They don't give 2 effs about you or me.

They care about the trillions of stolen money

Why don't you care?

There’s something very Hypocritical and Evil hiring 87,000 IRS agents to audit us down to $600 but now freak out when Elon and a tiny crew audits them exposing 100’s $BILLIONS of government waste and corruption.
Could it be any more obvious that the Democrats are criminals? pic.twitter.com/nTY50qhSL4

— Wayne Dunlap (@wdunlap) February 10, 2025

---

You're the one that posted about how private citizens should have full privacy from the government and that public servants like me should have no privacy rights. Was that a ridiculous smokescreen? Why post that if that wasn't what you meant? Personally, I'm offended that you think I have fewer rights than you and movielover do. As for fraud, there was nothing about fraud in that cutesy meme you posted. Sure, I'm against fraud. Prove that I and a couple of million other federal employees have committed fraud before you throw us under the bus.

I've spent the last 25 years doing my level best to keep people safe from harm for far less money than I could have made elsewhere. The last few weeks have been shocking in how little respect many of you all have for myself and the vast majority of other federal workers. I'm doing some soul searching my life choices these days though I still feel like I made the right choice back then. If you get your way, good luck getting AI to do what I do.

---

I do find it pretty ridiculous that people who supposedly voted for the "populist" president are rooting so hard for thousands of people to lose their jobs, based on the recommendations of the richest tech billionaire.

---

Who is "losing their job"?
People who voluntarily and knowingly violate a valid Presidential Executive Order? Tough *****

---

So the Trump team claims. I will wait for evidence.

Again, though, pretty amusing how much people are just willing to take the richest tech billionaire's word for this. If it were George Soros making an unverified claim there's no way you'd be so trusting.

---

You repeatedly play this tiresome game of "so they claim" or "I will wait for evidence" or "I don't believe your evidence", etc.. You don't impose that standard on your own questionable and unsupported claims/positions and you very seldom provide your own evidence. You provide no evidence that USAID and other federal agencies are so well run they shouldn't be audited.

---

I provided no evidence because I never made that claim. This is your trick: assigning a view to your debate opponent that they never offered up.

My position on Elon and DOGE is that they are behaving recklessly and stopping things that are actually good and necessary (and in some cases may actually be illegal to stop). Auditing is not the issue. You want to define it that way because it makes your guy look good.

---

The reference to evidence was to a variety of claims and positions you have taken.

What is your evidence that Elon/DOGE (as opposed to Trump or his agency leads) are "stopping things"?

What is your position on stopping the following expenditures? Support or oppose?

• LGBTQ organizations in Serbia.
• A DEI musical in Ireland
• A transgender Opera in Columbia
• A transgender comic book in Peru
• Sesame Street in Iraq
• "Gender affirming" care in Guatemala
• fighting "disinformation" in Kazakhstan

Above you expressed concerns that earmarked funds were blocked. What specific earmarked expenditures were illegally blocked? Be specific.

Again - you just throw out these allegations, without specificity or evidence.

Virtue signaling and performative outrage. Defining characteristics of MAGA.

BearGoggles said:

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The reference to evidence was to a variety of claims and positions you have taken.

What is your evidence that Elon/DOGE (as opposed to Trump or his agency leads) are "stopping things"?

---

My evidence is that the Trump administration has ordered spending freezes across entire departments. This isn't some secret, it's something they openly tout. Multiple organizations reported (for example) that they were unable to access the Medicaid portal immediately after one such order came down, though that was later reversed. AIDS clinics and other medical providers in other countries have reported that they have had to stop services due to the cutoff of funds from USAID. All of this has been posted elsewhere in this thread. Have you not read it?

BearGoggles said:

---

What is your position on stopping the following expenditures? Support or oppose?

• LGBTQ organizations in Serbia.
• A DEI musical in Ireland
• A transgender Opera in Columbia
• A transgender comic book in Peru
• Sesame Street in Iraq
• "Gender affirming" care in Guatemala
• fighting "disinformation" in Kazakhstan

---

Filthy lib that I am, I personally do not mind any of this, but I acknowledge that a new conservative administration would probably have the ability to stop it and that there's nothing illegal about that.

BearGoggles said:

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Above you expressed concerns that earmarked funds were blocked. What specific earmarked expenditures were illegally blocked? Be specific.

---

Reading comprehension is important. I posted that as a hypothetical scenario, after stating that I don't trust the claims of Marco Rubio or Elon Musk when they say large numbers of people should be fired because they were clearly insubordinate. I did not specifically claim that it had already happened.

sycasey said:

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BearGoggles said:

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The reference to evidence was to a variety of claims and positions you have taken.

What is your evidence that Elon/DOGE (as opposed to Trump or his agency leads) are "stopping things"?

---

My evidence is that the Trump administration has ordered spending freezes across entire departments. This isn't some secret, it's something they openly tout. Multiple organizations reported (for example) that they were unable to access the Medicaid portal immediately after one such order came down, though that was later reversed. AIDS clinics and other medical providers in other countries have reported that they have had to stop services due to the cutoff of funds from USAID. All of this has been posted elsewhere in this thread. Have you not read it?

BearGoggles said:

---

What is your position on stopping the following expenditures? Support or oppose?

• LGBTQ organizations in Serbia.
• A DEI musical in Ireland
• A transgender Opera in Columbia
• A transgender comic book in Peru
• Sesame Street in Iraq
• "Gender affirming" care in Guatemala
• fighting "disinformation" in Kazakhstan

---

Filthy lib that I am, I personally do not mind any of this, but I acknowledge that a new conservative administration would probably have the ability to stop it and that there's nothing illegal about that.

BearGoggles said:

---

Above you expressed concerns that earmarked funds were blocked. What specific earmarked expenditures were illegally blocked? Be specific.

---

Reading comprehension is important. I posted that as a hypothetical scenario, after stating that I don't trust the claims of Marco Rubio or Elon Musk when they say large numbers of people should be fired because they were clearly insubordinate. I did not specifically claim that it had already happened.

---

Hair-splitting is the realm of the rapscallion. In the face of overwhelming corruption and waste, to demand proof that this particular person at this particular desk of this particular country in this particular department at this particular time is the stuff of a biased lower courtroom. The federal bureaucracy has been full of every kind of malfeasance for decades. You know it. I know it. We all know it.

When such widespread failure is tackled, a few innocents are going to be hurt. If they don't know that, they haven't learned much about how the bureaucracy works and that they are subject to it. They do know that they have benefited for years from the rot, even if only for having a job that they would not otherwise have had.

Their option would have been to leave, wanting nothing to do with such immorality. They must now face the fear of discovering their true worth, as measured by the marketplace (altho, it has been said that a good many of those who never show for work have had second full-time jobs all along).

That's the problem, you prefer funding transgender operas abroad over the deficit, America's drug addicts (homeless), protecting the border, and citizens in Hawaii and Nirth Carolina.

NEW: Mike Benz exposes how USAID funds state-sponsored hit pieces to crush political opponents.

This is wild.

For a mere investment of $20 million, USAID’s state-sponsored hit pieces were able to:

• Generate at least $4.5 billion in fines against targets of these hit pieces.… pic.twitter.com/TVP75syyC6

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 12, 2025

AunBear89 said:

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Virtue signaling and performative outrage. Defining characteristics of MAGA.

---

LMAO!! Really, really hard to take anything you say serious anymore after accusing MAGA of virtue signaling and performative outrage. That is comical!! Nominate this for post of the day!

movielover said:

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That's the problem, you prefer funding transgender operas abroad over the deficit, America's drug addicts (homeless), protecting the border, and citizens in Hawaii and Nirth Carolina.

---

I don't think USAID's budget has been a significant drain on the deficit.

BearGoggles said:

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sycasey said:

---

BearGoggles said:

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The reference to evidence was to a variety of claims and positions you have taken.

What is your evidence that Elon/DOGE (as opposed to Trump or his agency leads) are "stopping things"?

---

My evidence is that the Trump administration has ordered spending freezes across entire departments. This isn't some secret, it's something they openly tout. Multiple organizations reported (for example) that they were unable to access the Medicaid portal immediately after one such order came down, though that was later reversed. AIDS clinics and other medical providers in other countries have reported that they have had to stop services due to the cutoff of funds from USAID. All of this has been posted elsewhere in this thread. Have you not read it?

---

Pretty damn funny you would admonish me with "reading comprehension is important" after posting this.

On the plus side, you did admit that Elon/DOGE stopped nothing and that your rhetoric is just intended to deflect by adopting the Dems false narrative that Elon/DOGE are out of control and making unilateral decisions.

And just for the record, no one at USAID was fired (yet). They were placed on paid administrative leave. Huge difference there. 4 people at FEMA were fired for rank insubordination. Those are the only firings I've read about.

---

I think that Elon/DOGE are part of the Trump Administration. Are they not?

BearGoggles said:

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And just for the record, no one at USAID was fired (yet).

---

NEW: White House has fired the USAID inspector general after his office's blistering report on the consequences of Trump's aid pause. W/ @DavidNakamura and Lisa Rein pic.twitter.com/1cv7dBGvHM

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) February 11, 2025

sycasey said:

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movielover said:

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That's the problem, you prefer funding transgender operas abroad over the deficit, America's drug addicts (homeless), protecting the border, and citizens in Hawaii and Nirth Carolina.

---

I don't think USAID's budget has been a significant drain on the deficit.

---

Oh, you can't believe that this is a matter of money, can you? USAID has been exposed as a secret implementation force for State, CIA and other clandestine operations. Also, it's a matter of policy - a rogue operation. The deficit is #3 on the list - there will be USAID's before we're through.

But, I'm guessing that you will keep trying to find something that will stick on the wall, because you can't be that much of a believer. No one can...and still swear allegiance.

Rushinbear said:

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sycasey said:

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movielover said:

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That's the problem, you prefer funding transgender operas abroad over the deficit, America's drug addicts (homeless), protecting the border, and citizens in Hawaii and Nirth Carolina.

---

I don't think USAID's budget has been a significant drain on the deficit.

---

Oh, you can't believe that this is a matter of money, can you? USAID has been exposed as a secret implementation force for State, CIA and other clandestine operations. Also, it's a matter of policy - a rogue operation. The deficit is #3 on the list - there will be USAID's before we're through.

But, I'm guessing that you will keep trying to find something that will stick on the wall, because you can't be that much of a believer. No one can...and still swear allegiance.

---

Exactly, take $17 billion to Ukraine and $3 billion to Israel right off the top.