Tag Archives: foreign aid

Bringing Common Sense To Foreign Aid

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On Friday, PJ Media posted an article about changing the American foreign aid model so that it is more efficient and helps the people who need help.

The article reports:

The truth is that our foreign aid had become a joke — a way to line pockets and spread wacko leftist ideology more than anything. Rubio told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos — who tried to do that whole “Trump is killing people by cutting aid” thing — back in September that “We’re gonna do more than anyone in the world, again, this year, but we’re gonna do it the right way. We’re gonna do it holistically. We’re gonna do it as part of an integrated foreign policy.”

During that interview, Rubio pointed out that the reason why people die is much more nuanced than what the media wants to print. In some regions, wars prevent aid from reaching its target, or gangs steal it before it can reach its intended recipients. In some places, the middlemen, the distributors, simply don’t handle it well, etc. The world is not a one-size-fits-all situation, George.

The article includes Secretary of State Rubio’s statement about his plan:

The United States has spent billions of dollars over the years in helping with health strategies all across the world.  What we learned over time and especially after coming here, is that oftentimes – and I’m oversimplifying it, but this is an accurate description – what would happen is we would go to a country and say we’re going to help you with your health care needs. Then we would drive over to western – northern Virginia somewhere, find an NGO, one of these organizations, give them all the money, tell them, “go to this country and do their health care program for them.” That NGO would then take about – some percentage of that money for their overhead and administrative costs, and by the time it got down to it, the host country had very little influence, it was sort of imposed on them, and only a percentage of the overall money ever actually reached the patients and the people on the ground that we were trying to help because of these costs.

This makes no sense. So why are we hiring American and international NGOs to go into other countries and run health care systems that are parallel and sometimes in conflict with the health care systems of the host country? If we’re trying to help countries, help the country, don’t help the NGO to go in and find a new line of business. And so, that’s the model that we’re breaking. We’re not doing this anymore. We are not going to spend billions of dollars funding the NGO industrial complex, while close and important partners like Kenya either have no role to play or have very little influence over how health care money is being spent. Bottom line is, if you want to help a country, work with that country, not work with a third party that imposes things on that country. 

When you eliminate the middle man, more money can go toward solving the problem.

Slowing Down A Major Part Of The Money Laundering In Washington

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Some of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) spending cuts are actually happening.

On Friday, Yahoo News reported:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted an injunction that required the U.S. State Department to continue making foreign aid payments, handing a victory to President Donald Trump.

In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said a lower court erred by ordering the Trump administration to restore foreign assistance payments previously approved by Congress.

Trump imposed a 90-day pause on all foreign aid on January 20, the same day he was inaugurated for a second term in the White House. His executive order was followed by aggressive moves to gut USAID, the main U.S. foreign aid agency, including by placing much of its staff on leave and exploring bringing the formerly independent agency under the State Department.

Two nonprofit groups that receive federal funding, AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition and Journalism Development Network, brought litigation alleging Trump’s funding freeze was unlawful.

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, ordered the Trump administration to pay nearly $2 billion in outstanding aid to its humanitarian partners worldwide.

Writing for the two-judge majority, Circuit Judge Karen Henderson said the nonprofit groups “lack a cause of action to press their claims” and therefore failed to satisfy the requirements for an injunction.

The article concludes:

A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget, the White House’s budget office, said the ruling stops “radical left dark money groups” from “maliciously interfering with the president’s ability to spend responsibly and to administer foreign aid in a lawful manner in alignment with his America First policies.”

The problem with foreign aid is that it does not always get to the people it was intended for or to the places it was supposed to go. In many cases, America has built palaces for dictators while the people in their country starved. In a country ruled by a tyrant, it is very difficult to get foreign aid money to the people who need it.

What Do Illegal Aliens Contribute To America?

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The political left has often argued that illegal aliens in America are a benefit to America. The argument is that they pay taxes and contribute to society. But what do the actual statistics say?

On Friday, The Lid posted some statistics relating to illegal aliens:

Democrats even go farther in their support for illegals and claim that they really don’t benefit from our system at all and that WE are the ones that reap all the benefits from illegal aliens.

As their argument goes, Illegals take jobs Americans won’t do. Then all the taxes they pay go into our system, but because they are not legal, they don’t file taxes and, therefore, don’t get any refunds, so they forfeit their taxes.

Like everything liberals say, there is a tiny bit of truth in there. It is true they pay taxes in the form of paycheck withholding. And, yes, they don’t legally get that money back in IRS refunds. But that is where the truth stops.

No, they don’t take jobs Americans won’t do. Americans will take those jobs when enough illegals are deported leaving those jobs open long enough.

But there is an even bigger lie in the left’s claims. Their claim that illegals are good for us because they pay taxes and we benefit is a lie.

Again, yes, some of them pay taxes. But are they really a plus for us? The answer to that is a resounding no. And the reason for that is because they take far more in government services (both federal and state) than they ever pay in taxes.

The Center for Immigration Studies noted that 59 percent of non-citizen households are on welfare of one sort or another. That is compared to only 39 percent of citizens.

The article notes that literally hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars earned by illegal aliens are sent back home to their families. That is money earned that is never put into the American economy.

The article concludes:

Illegals and other migrants who really aren’t in the U.S. to become part of our country send more money home from their U.S. paychecks than the U.S. government spends in foreign aid.

This is money 100% lost to our economy, money that doesn’t benefit local businesses, not our schools, not invested in the U.S., not anything. It is money bled out of our country, lost forever. Gone.

So, the truth is, the numbers show that liberals are liars. Illegal aliens are a net drag on this country. They don’t help us even a little bit.

Congress Actually Listened To The People!

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The text of the border bill crafted by the Senate was released Sunday night. People who read the bill quickly pointed out that the bill did not secure the border and it provided more money for Ukraine than the annual budget of the Marine Corps. The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson declared the bill dead on arrival (as it should have been).

This was Stephen Miller’s Twitter post:

Well, the uproar has had an impact on Congress.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the shocking decision to recommend Republicans block the advancement of the Senate pro-migration border bill.

That first procedural vote was set for Wednesday. It is unknown if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will forge ahead, although that is likely.

McConnell cited the overwhelming number of Senate Republicans planning to vote against the measure either on substance or because they wanted more time, according to Punchbowl News.

The longtime Republican leader has spoken in favor of the deal and did not express any personal hesitations about the legislation to his colleagues.

According to Punchbowl, McConnell said the political mood in the country has changed since negotiations began months ago. At that time, McConnell and Democrat leaders agreed to pair foreign aid to Ukraine, of which McConnell is the Senate’s greatest champion, with a border compromise.

If you believe McConnell’s explanation, I have a bridge to sell you. The real reason McConnell changed his mind is that it is February of an election year and McConnell is afraid that the voters might remember his support for this awful bill. The sole purpose of this bill is to legalize as many illegal aliens as possible before November so that they can be Democrat voters. Why McConnell was willing to go along with that, I don’t know.

This Needs To Happen

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Yesterday American Greatness posted an article about President Trump’s fiscal 2021 budget proposal.

The article reports:

In the proposal, “Trump will seek to make a 21 percent cut in foreign aid which seeks $44.1 billion in the upcoming fiscal year compared with $55.7 billion enacted in fiscal year 2020,” an administration official said. Aid to Ukraine would remain at its 2020 levels under the new proposal.

The White House wants to boost funding for the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to $700 million compared to $150 million the previous year, said Russell Vought, the acting head of the Office of Management and Budget.

…The DFC was formed in large part to counter China’s growing economic influence. It serves as a development bank that partners with the private sector to provide loans in developing countries. It also serves as an alternative financing option to what the United States sees as predatory practices from China.

U.S. officials want to counter the soft power China has wielded with such loans and help countries avoid what they consider Beijing’s “debt trap” diplomacy in which countries give up control of ports, roadways, or other major assets when they fund infrastructure projects with Chinese loans that they cannot pay back.

Obviously, based on the recent behavior of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, the proposed budget will be dead on arrival. However, there is something else in play here. Who is impacted by a cut in foreign aid? I have stated before that an investigative reporter with good contacts needs to look at the corporations involved in the construction projects paid for by foreign aid to see if family members of Congressmen are involved in those corporations. It is quite possible that a cut in foreign aid could directly impact the income of the extended families of our Congressmen. Peter Schweizer has done some of this investigation and written the book Profiles in Corruption. More investigations are needed.

If there is a serious discussion of cuts to foreign aid when the budget proposal is brought up in the House of Representatives, pay attention to which Representatives strongly oppose the cuts to foreign aid. That could be very telling,