You are more than welcome to send part of your income voluntarily. I for one at this point am good with cutting all foreign aid until our budget and debt is at a manageable level again. All other nations can kick rocks until then.

I hope the plan is to cut now and rebuild a better more transparent org later.

you said "every charity" making it a noun
not an action...

If there's nothing wrong in your mind about buying friendships, why not just send a check?  Why use USAID as a cover?  Why all the cloak and dagger?  Maybe your comment about friendships is wrong, that's why.

And yet you are wanting to evaluate them based on the same overhead analysis that designated charities are judged by.  You want to compare USAID to other charities and then in the same breath argue they are different.  That makes no sense.

Based on what?  Do you know of any USAID expenditures you'd keep?  If so, what is the benefit to the US, and how is that benefit worth what we are paying for?

Funny how you post a straw argument to argue against my argument.  Show me were I said you FULLY support ALL spending associated with USAID.  I never said that, but you're pretending i did.  Since you asked for a quote, how about a true quote which I posted -- not what you say I posted:

"Keep defending the deep state's USAID fund.  It just shows how contrary and argumentative you can be.  You're happy with government fraud, waste, abuse and non-transparency.  That's been established.  Anything more you have to say on this is redundant."

What cloak and dagger?
Congress doesn't just cut a check every time they allocate money, there are offices that oversee and implement the spending. When a government agency or non-profit applies for a grant it goes though an administrative middleman, not straight to a congressman.

What cloak and dagger?
Congress doesn't just cut a check every time they allocate money, there are offices that oversee and implement the spending. When a government agency or non-profit applies for a grant it goes though an administrative middleman, not straight to a congressman.

How much time have you spent in federal government?

You have no idea what the funding processes actually look like.

Every high-level agency gets a discretionary pot of money to spend on anything they see as needed but not otherwise funded.

Once Congress and the President pass a budget, the money is allocated by law.  Any middlemen are just accounting and finance workers who dispurse the funds to organizations whose leaders then allocate the funds down to subordinate organizations to fund activities.

In the case of USAID, the money is sent directly to that program.  The people running it decide who gets how much.

You seem to have this misconception that there are people like Musk in the process making sure funding has a person or section that oversees the money to make sure it is spent responsibly.  That perception is totally wrong.  The only oversight is AFTER THE FACT, where someone who cares about the duty to be responsible sees what was spent, how it was spent, and why it was spent.  Then they can question whether or not any expenditure was reasonable and justifiable.  Most don't care.  As long as the books balance, they have done their job.

If your naive belief was actually true, people providing oversight would have been able to account for the trillions that have gone missing over the years.  So, please don't pretend to lecture on how appropriations and funding processes work. 

The proof nobody is providing adult supervision is in the results.

Just because you (the public) doesn't see every detail of how they money is being spend doesn't mean there is no supervision of it all.
Stupid argument.  That's like saying "Just because you can't see ghosts doesn't mean they aren't real."  We see the results of how our money is stolen and wasted.  if you see footprints appearing in the sand and there's nobody that you can see making them, then you have evidence there are ghosts.  Same with the results of how our money is spent without proper controls.

When a group or agency wants federal grant money they have to fill out applications and explain why they want to use the grant money and how that grant money will be used to achieve the goals of the grant. Congress doesn't have to allocate each dollar to a single specific agency rather it can allocate money to specific areas needing funding which will then be distributed by certain agencies, such as USAID, to achieve the goals set forth by congress.
Wrong.  Look up baseline budgeting and omnibus spending bills.  Do you even grasp how large the federal budget is and how many pages one must
 wade through to see where it all goes?  We don't have a budget in place at the moment.  it was due in October for FY2025.  do you honestly believe there are tight controls on spending when a budget doesn't even exist?

Grant money is sometimes mismanaged, wasted, and stolen (I know a guy who got fired for abusing grant money) but it isn't the case that someone is just throwing out money without oversight or records.
you proved my point in your anecdote.  You believe the money is managed as it is allocated.  in fact, things like your friend abusing government grants wasn't discovered until after the fact.  i doubt your friend ever paid a dime back to the government.

For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has
been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive
sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious —
pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.

Here are only a few examples of the WASTE and ABUSE:
***
$1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and
business communities”

$70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland

$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam

$47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia

$32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru

$2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala

$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt

Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist
organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation

Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab

“Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”

Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing
countries

Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and
even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin
production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban
***
The list literally goes on and on — and it has all been happening for decades.

Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.

Stupid argument.  That's like saying "Just because you can't see ghosts doesn't mean they aren't real."  We see the results of how our money is stolen and wasted.  if you see footprints appearing in the sand and there's nobody that you can see making them, then you have evidence there are ghosts.  Same with the results of how our money is spent without proper controls.

Wrong.  Look up baseline budgeting and omnibus spending bills.  Do you even grasp how large the federal budget is and how many pages one must
 wade through to see where it all goes?  We don't have a budget in place at the moment.  it was due in October for FY2025.  do you honestly believe there are tight controls on spending when a budget doesn't even exist?

you proved my point in your anecdote.  You believe the money is managed as it is allocated.  in fact, things like your friend abusing government grants wasn't discovered until after the fact.  i doubt your friend ever paid a dime back to the government.

You miss my point here, I am saying that the public doesn't get to know about the ins and outs of every level of government but that doesn't mean there is no supervision or audit etc of expenditures. I think you will find a wide spectrum meaning I think you will find some money is well managed and spent in accordance to its original purpose and you will have other examples where money is terribly managed/spent.


I didn't say there are tight spending controls. I think there are clear examples of waste, mismanagement and fraud fully justifying these audits.

Bullcrap.  That's our money, and we have a right to know how our money is being spent.  The only exception should be if the entire thing is classified.  But then, that shouldn't be rolled in with a bunch of unclassified charitable programs, should it?  If it's classified, it should be a separate spending allocation so national security is being protected.

You preach that we have the ability to vote out the people who misuse and abuse our treasure, and then argue that the government can merely hide the "ins and outs" of the money they spend.  Seems like a Catch 22.


He was not my friend.  That changes nothing i said.
I didn't say I believe all money is managed as it was allocated. Sooner or later someone will cheat and abuse grant money.

If even one program is not being managed as allocated, then all programs can potentially become the same.  Problems like this are not isolated.  The temptation to misuse funds for personal reasons or embezzle the money under a corrupt and incompetent administration is too risky to simply trust the people placed in charge.  Without transparency, they are able to get away with billions before anyone does an audit.

Bullcrap.  That's our money, and we have a right to know how our money is being spent.  The only exception should be if the entire thing is classified.  But then, that shouldn't be rolled in with a bunch of unclassified charitable programs, should it?  If it's classified, it should be a separate spending allocation so national security is being protected.

You preach that we have the ability to vote out the people who misuse and abuse our treasure, and then argue that the government can merely hide the "ins and outs" of the money they spend.  Seems like a Catch 22.

That changes nothing i said.

If even one program is not being managed as allocated, then all programs can potentially become the same.  Problems like this are not isolated.  The temptation to misuse funds for personal reasons or embezzle the money under a corrupt and incompetent administration is too risky to simply trust the people placed in charge.  Without transparency, they are able to get away with billions before anyone does an audit.

Act blue funded groups involved with the Tesla protest.

More investigation underway.

IYKYK what act blue is about.

Not sure how this is related to  DOGE other than both Tesla and DOGE are headed by Musk.

ACT BLUE is going down the same way ACORN did, only in a grander spectacle. 

ActBlue Fundraising Platform in Turmoil As Executives
Resign and the Last Lawyer Has His Email Shut Off
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/03/07/leftist-fundraising-platform-in-turmoil-as-executives-resign-and-the-last-lawyer-has-his-email-shut-off-n2186411

Potential ActBlue criminal charges over possible fraud
donations once again reveal the Dems’ fraud campaign
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/potential-actblue-criminal-charges-over-possible-fraud-donations-once-again-reveal-the-dems-fraud-campaign/ar-AA1qQv0D

Elon posted about it.

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