{"id":22636,"date":"2025-02-07T00:18:02","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T22:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=22636"},"modified":"2025-02-07T00:18:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T22:18:02","slug":"why-do-trump-and-musk-want-to-close-usaid-at-all-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=22636","title":{"rendered":"Why do Trump and Musk want to close USAID at all costs?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dozens of senior officials have been placed on leave. Thousands of contractors have been laid off while billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to other countries have been frozen. The reason is USAID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past two weeks, President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has made significant changes to the US agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid abroad, leaving aid organizations worried about whether they can continue programs such as nutritional support for malnourished infants and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Cold War, John F. Kennedy established the United States Agency for International Development, known as USAID. In the decades that followed, Republicans and Democrats fought over the agency and its funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is USAID?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy created USAID at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. He wanted a more effective way to counter Soviet influence abroad through foreign aid and found the State Department frustratingly bureaucratic in doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, and Kennedy created USAID as an independent agency in 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, USAID supporters argue that American aid to countries counterbalances Russian and Chinese influence internationally. China has its own \u201cBelt and Road\u201d foreign aid program worldwide that is active in many countries that the United States also wants as partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics say the programs are wasteful and advance a liberal agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s happening to the agency?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On his first day in office, January 20, Trump imposed a 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign aid. Four days later, Peter Morocco, a political appointee returning from Trump\u2019s first term, drafted a harsher-than-expected interpretation of the order, a move that has shuttered thousands of programs around the world and forced layoffs and other actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since moved to keep more emergency programs open during the freeze. Confusion over which programs are exempt from the Trump administration\u2019s shutdown orders\u2014and fears that U.S. aid could be permanently lost\u2014continues to freeze aid and development work around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of senior officials have been suspended, thousands of contractors have been laid off, and employees were told Monday not to enter its Washington headquarters. At the same time, both USAID\u2019s website and its X platform account were taken down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio said the administration\u2019s goal is to examine each program individually to see which projects make \u201cAmerica safer, stronger or more prosperous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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What do critics say?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans typically push to give the State Department\u2014which provides overall foreign policy guidance to USAID\u2014more control over its policy and budget. Democrats typically promote USAID\u2019s autonomy and authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding for United Nations agencies, including peacekeeping, human rights, and refugee organizations, has been a traditional target for Republican administrations to cut. The first Trump administration moved to reduce foreign aid spending, suspending payments to several UN agencies, including the UN Population Fund and funding to the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Trump\u2019s first term, the United States withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and its financial obligations to that body. The U.S. is also barred from funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, under a bill signed by then-President Joe Biden last March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Florida senator, Rubio has often called for greater transparency in foreign aid spending but has generally been supportive. In a 2017 social media post, Rubio said foreign aid \u201cis not charity,\u201d that the U.S. \u201cmust make sure it\u2019s spent properly,\u201d and called it critical to U.S. national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Rubio sponsored a bill that would require U.S. foreign aid agencies to include more information about which organizations are implementing aid on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, amid the turmoil, Marco Rubio announced Monday that he is now the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, telling reporters that many of the agency\u2019s programs will continue under the State Department, but blaming the change on high levels of \u201cinsubordination\u201d among its employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is Elon Musk \u201cgoing after\u201d USAID?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, has launched a sweeping effort authorized by Trump to lay off government employees and cut trillions in government spending. USAID is one of its primary targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk claims that USAID funding was used to fund deadly programs and has called it a \u201ccriminal organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the impact of the freeze?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sub-Saharan Africa could suffer more than any other region during the aid freeze. The United States gave the region more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian aid last year. HIV-positive patients in Africa who arrived at clinics funded by a well-known U.S. program that helped fight the global AIDS epidemic in the 1980s found the doors locked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are already repercussions in Latin America. In Mexico, a crowded migrant shelter in southern Mexico was left without a doctor. Meanwhile, a program to provide mental health support to LGBTQI+ youth fleeing Venezuela was dismantled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemala, so-called \u201cSecure Mobility Offices\u201d where migrants can apply to enter the US legally have been closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How much does the US spend on aid programs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the US spent about $40 billion on foreign aid in fiscal year 2023, according to a report released last month by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US is the world\u2019s largest provider of humanitarian aid, although some other countries spend a larger portion of their budgets on it. Foreign aid overall amounts to less than 1% of the US budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do Americans think about foreign aid?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 6 in 10 U.S. adults said the government was spending \u201ctoo much\u201d on aid programs, according to a March 2023 AP-NORC poll. When asked about the specific costs, about 7 in 10 U.S. adults said the government spent too much money to provide aid to other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 9 in 10 Republicans and 55% of Democrats agreed that the country was spending too much on foreign aid. At the time, about 6 in 10 U.S. adults said the government was spending \u201ctoo little\u201d on domestic issues that included education, health care, infrastructure, Social Security and Medicare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polling has shown that U.S. adults tend to overestimate the share of the federal budget spent on foreign aid. Surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that on average, Americans say spending on aid programs in other countries makes up 31% of the federal budget, not more than 1% or less.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Could Trump dismantle USAID on his own?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats say presidents don\u2019t have the constitutional authority to eliminate USAID. But it\u2019s not clear what would stop Donald Trump from trying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mini-version of this legal battle took place in Trump\u2019s first term, when he tried to cut the budget for foreign operations by a third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Congress refused, the Trump administration used freezes and other tactics to cut off the flow of funds already appropriated by Congress for aid programs in other countries. The U.S. Government Accountability Office later ruled that it violated a law known as the Impoundment Control Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMay you live and die by executive order,\u201d Musk told X on Saturday regarding USAID.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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