OMB- “Dramatic” Cuts to Foreign Aid

| March 5, 2017

The Trump administration will propose cuts to foreign aid, according to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director Mick Mulvaney. The money saved will be spent here.

“By the 16th of March, we’ll be able to roll out the full spending budget,” Mulvaney told Fox News.

“We are going to propose to reduce foreign aid and we are going to propose to spend that money here,” he added, explaining that the reductions will be “fairly dramatic.”

“The overriding message is fairly straightforward, which is, less money spent on folks overseas — more money spent on folks back home,” he said.

Earlier this week, the White House proposed cutting the budgets of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development by 37 percent in an effort to significantly increase defense expenditures.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-proposes-cutting-state-department-budget-by-one-third-1488306999

The usual suspects are, of course, vehemently opposed. Can’t say I’m too impressed at the outrage, considering the sources. US Agency for International Development? Shut it down.

JMHO, YMMV.

 

Category: Politics

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2/17 Air Cav

“JMHO, YMMV” LGBTQ. ABCD.

2/17 Air Cav

Yeah, I am not a hipster. I grew up with one landline (dial and a real ringer), a single B/W TV that required an antenna, and no computer. Newspapers were bought, smelled great, and left ink on my fingers.

Instinct

And if your friend had more than one 9 in his phone number, you probably weren’t going to call him because it took too dang long!

OldSoldier54

Finally.

The Other Whitey

What the hell is the US Agency For International Development and why the hell does it exist?

The United States and our government have zero obligations outside our borders, just like every other government of every other nation on this little blue ball of rock and water. The only exception being defensive treaties.

Roh-Dog

USAID, BKA the civil reconstruction branch for the Company?
Between that gross fraud and the UNHCR IDP ‘counts’ in Kurdistan I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner…
Oh wait, the old boss was the same as the older boss.

Ex-PH2

I’m waiting for the howling to start….

Silentium Est Aureum

As long as the DoD budget increases don’t go to useless shit like the F-35, I’m good with it.

Eden

HEAR, HEAR!

A Proud Infidel®™

Maybe next we can send a nice hearty “FUCK YOU!!!” to the United Nothing and cut back on the money wasted there? I’m also all for a cease and desist on sending money to third world hellholes that never cease to hate us anyway.

Silentium Est Aureum

Maybe we can do like they did in the movie Heavy Metal, and turn the UN into low-rent housing.

Fjardeson

TAAAARRNA!

UpNorth

Indeed, API. Let them hate us for free, we don’t need to pay them to hate us.

NavyEODguy

^^^^^
The WORD!

2/17 Air Cav

The US Agency for International Development acquires and distributes training bras for young ladies.

ex-OS2

For the love of all humanity, think about the children!!!!

Pinto Nag

Humanity stopped thinking about the children quite some time ago.

ex-OS2

I was being facetious. 🙂

Pinto Nag

So was I.

ex-OS2

😉

Graybeard

ID-SARC thinks about the children often. Or the possibility thereof…

NavyEODguy

It’s been a while since I’ve researched it, so I “spout off” any numbers, but almost every dept, agency in our govt has a pot of “foreign” aid money. What President Trump should do is zero them all out.

Do any of you guys recall the last time our govt proposed and passed a REAL budget; and then operated within in it?

Yeah, me neither. Continuing resolutions is not a budget. That’s like giving a 15 year old a checkbook, without any training or guidance, and saying have a good time.

NavyEODguy

**won’t “spout off”……

Silentium Est Aureum

“How can I be overdrawn? I still have checks!”

Sounds familiar.

11b-mailclerk

Much of our “foreign aid” goes for the recipient nation to buy American stuff. (Plus graft. Cant forget the graft.)

Thus, “foreign aid” has a very big, very well funded, very effective lobby.

Well, I suppose much of the graft comes back, buying US luxury stuff, bugout homes, etc.

CB Senior

That is the major problem. The theft and graft. Most of the Foreign aid never leaves the country. Caterpillar and John Deere are huge recipients of this. Of course tax payers also get screwed because the shit breaks and none of the host countries know how to fix shit, so they just order new ones on our dime.
More welfare for Big Business.

Bob Walsh

Except for Israel, which gets cash and weapons, most foreign aid goes from USAID into the pockets of beltway contractors. Here in Burma we have USAID represented by URC, DAI, Winrock, Chemonix, PACT, and PSI, as well as others. Following the money, about 65% never leaves the US, being eaten up by corporate overhead. What makes it to Burma is further eaten up by expat lifestyle maintenance. The average Aid & Development expat here has a package that costs the taxpayer as much as $500,000/year. So…What makes it out to the field, to show America’s commitment to developing Burma? Not a hell of a lot.

Compared with Japanese, Korean, and EU aid agencies, the USAID is nothing but a gian self-licking ice-cream cone. As result, the US government has very little influence on Burmese policy.

David

Aren’t these the same folks spending millions rebuilding/building mosques in foreign countries that don’t like us anyway?

Deplorable B Woodman

That was my take on most US “aid” to foreign countries…..corruption, graft, and going to countries that hate America no matter what…..just like DildoCrats.

Thunderstixx

Here’s hoping he goes after the education department, HUD, the unions like Governor Walker did, the art department and a host of other wasteful bull shit programs set up to do one thing, demand more money from us for whatever it is they do.
This will also stop the lousy sore losers buried in the bureaucratic morass more commonly known as DC…
It’s gonna be a ton of fun to watch all this happen over the next four years !!!

Eden

How about de-fund everything except national defense?

A Proud Infidel®™

I have to respectfully disagree with you there, Eden. IMHO there are a few other things than National Defense that we need to keep up with but that being said, WE DO need to cut WAY the hell back on a mega-load of things we’ve been wasting money on for years, things like NPR, the NEA, the Departments of Education and Energy (BOTH of which we’d do fine without)…

lily

If the foreign aid isn’t going to something that’s in America’s interest then cut it. Most of it was probably coming back to some politician’s offshore account.

M884

Yes, thank USAID for introducing ammonia nitrate fertilizer into Afghanistan back in the 60’s then helping Pakistan build the PAKARAB fertilizer plant that still manufactures and supplies the IED precourser today…