- "In children who acquired H.I.V. at birth, the infection can progress very quickly to illness, with death occurring as early as eight to 12 weeks after birth — shorter than the 90-day pause on foreign aid."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/05/health/trump-usaid-pepfar... ("Foreign Aid Freeze Leaves Millions Without H.I.V. Treatment")
It also makes the point that, under some reasonable assumptions, you could assume that any domestic program you could theoretically redirect the funding to would likely be ~100x less effective than PEPFAR, which is an abnormally effective aid program.
It'd be like if Microsoft donated free copies of Windows to a hospital and then one day was like "Actually we've been donating too much stuff, your licenses are invalid as of today, your computers will now not work." It would be similarly strange to ask why Microsoft's contribution is so critical to anything outside their own company, when it's because they made it that way on purpose, partially for PR purposes, partially from genuine altruism, and partially to tie Microsoft's well-being to the hospital's.
I say we stop so other countries can spin up their own programs and pay for it. I have zero interest in using TAX dollars to fund medical programs outside the US.
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/foreign-aid-given-per-cap...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_development_aid_sovere...
Just the interest on the US debt is almost a trillion dollars a year now which is 3% of GDP and the debt is ~35 trillion. Deficit spending is higher than federal taxes on the paycheck, which means you're basically paying double of what your paycheck shows.
Meanwhile Norway's sovereign wealth fund has $1.75 trillion dollars.
where did you get that?
it seems like Ebola Zaire, Marburg, and sundry other diseases are saying "hold my beer".
If we're going to do this we should probably institute some kind of health screening during the immigration process at entry points.
A dozen of vaccines and a proof (from the doctors certified by the US officials) that you have no contagious diseases (including TB) is a prerequisite to get any US visa. The only way to bring TB to the US, I presume, is to jump over the fence at the border.
Turning it off without any planning like its the back up server for a social media company is irresponsible and will cause people to die.
I think the rest of the world will withdraw from trusting the US after this and other actions. A lot of trust in the world leadership positions the US takes are being torched by these vandals right now and while I hope for an amazing US comeback in 4 years it looks a lot more like China will step in as a stable partner for a lot of countries after an almost complete betrayal of western values.
If USAID and aid to places in much of Africa was our soft power, I'd expect to see a lot less pivoting to China and Russia in those places. On that note, perhaps the countries that decided to invite Wagner or enter the Chinese BRI can ask their new friends for some TB meds?
I had watched a loved one suffer from this disease. The pills were huge. Waiting too long to start treatment causes a lot of complications. These aren't well understood, given the massive TB funding deficits. Even when the disease is cleared from your lungs, it leaves plenty of things behind.
If you or somebody you know is coughing persistently for weeks, losing weight, has evening fevers, just get the quantiferon gold test. Be persistent with your doctor, just mention past TB exposure. Your insurance should cover it. Don't wait around months trying to look at every other avenue. It'll look very similar to aspergillosis on x-rays.
[1]https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/politics/government/2025...
It's similar to why a lot of people thought George W. Bush rolled invading Iraq into his plan to take down Al-Qaeda despite Iraq not apparently harboring them.
What about American taxpayers of the "maga" persuasion?
That's such an apt phrase. It goes back to the time Rome was a great and prosperous civilization, and there was a barbarian tribe–"Vandals" is a proper name–who were incompatible with kind of high civilization, who rode into a weakened Rome and looted various treasures they liked. And torched the rest.
It's an apt language to talk about people who seemingly don't comprehend the value of the institutions America built up over a century, the deep soft power behind them; who see only fistfuls of cash that can be grabbed.
putin.
Countries have a mutually beneficial relationship with the US out of need(world's biggest economy and consumer market), out of fear(world's biggest military), and out o necessity (Russia and China being worse alternatives) not out of trust. Basically, Realpolitik. Trump didn't move the needle on that front at all despite the optics in the eyes of the plebs.
If by some hypothetical scenario, tomorrow the US would disappear from the world and its status as the leading world super-power be replaced by a country like Russia or China, then the other countries on the planet would kiss their ring, just as how in a herd/pack all the males succumb to the alpha male. It's nothing to do with trust, it's all to do with power and influence.
The USA currently has a problem where a large portion of the US population no longer trusts the USA. That population shifts depending on whichever group is in charge of the federal government
Maybe this is not the way to repair that trust, I don't know. But I think for a lot of people, "Stop sending tons of our tax money to other countries" is a step to repair some of that trust with the population
The next step would have to be "start re-investing that money back into America" but we'll see if that actually happens
Feature, not a bug.
Yes, bingo. On both sides, people have become extremely sick of seeing "billions of dollars sent to X" in the news knowing that we, American citizens, will never receive anything like that amount of aid
They're so rich that they're isolated from any negative fallout (and they'll try to benefit from them too).
USAID is a bogeyman for that "community"
Anyone that actually does measure later and tells him his cut was off is just part of the radical left, fake media and woke mob.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_F._Kennedy_Jr.#HIV/AIDS... ("Robert F. Kennedy Jr.#HIV/AIDS denialism")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_Anthony_Fauci
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/rfk-aids-hiv-hh...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/opinion/kennedys-views-on...
Link to Eric Olszewski's blog on the topic: https://medium.com/@eolszewski/dont-feed-the-humans-they-wil...
https://www.pih.org/article/tb-deadliest-infectious-disease-...
https://www.who.int/news/item/29-10-2024-tuberculosis-resurg...
i realize "deadliest" could be evaluated both as "least curable" and "most killed", which are definitely different things.
The US also spends less than the amount designated by the UN on foreign aid.
America also spent less than Germany in % of GDP in the World Health Organization funding.
"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Western Europe had even more skin in the game than the US.
Global geopolitics are complicated. It's true on some level that no one trusts anyone else, but relative levels of trust still matter. There aren't many superpowers out there, if the US is seen as unreliable, China and the EU can step in and replace US influence. This has been happening in Africa for a couple decades or so, with China becoming increasingly influential.
These actions will drive US allies into partnerships with our rivals, which will make the US weaker. Everyone on both sides of the aisle understood this from 1946-2016.
Firstly, I have no sympathy here. If you trust any foreign government that's not accountable to you to begin with, that's on you.
The upshot is that this serves as a good lesson and wake-up call for Canadians and for us in EU as well that we need to start pulling our weight in the world and looking out for our own interests instead of letting ourselves at the mercy of foreign powers.
People need to learn lessons the hard way on their own skin if they're too stupid to learn from past history, like how Czechoslovakia was fucked over by its allies in WW2 and gave to Hitler on a platter. Don't rely on supposed allies to fight your battles, look out for yourself. That's why I'm a big fan of the Swiss's neutrality system and France's post-WW2 nuclear deterrent program. A strong military is better than stronger allies that can change their mind.
And secondly, nothing is ever irreparably damaged. 80 years ago Japan and US were at war and for over 50 years they've been strong allies. Canada also invaded the US in 1814 and burned down the White House and yet they've been each other closest allies after that. Similarly, in 20 years Russia could be the west's best friend. So relationships between countries change all the time based on how the wind blows. Nothing ever lasts forever, only gullible fools with no understanding of history try to hang onto such idealistic beliefs.
21% of the federal budget goes to Social Security (aid)
16% goes to medicare (aid)
10% goes to other health spending (probably at least partially aid -- edit: further research shows that of this, around 90% is some kind of aid)
7% goes to income security (aid)
4% goes to veteran services (aid)
3% goes to education, training, employment, and social services (aid)
1.5% goes to natural resources and environment (aid)
1% goes to community and regional development (aid)
1% goes to foreign aid
We are already spending a huge portion of our budget on various kinds of domestic aid, the majority of it in fact.
Edit to add, data from 2024, source here: https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function
Most of what you describe is not for the average American citizen. But it is the average American citizen who has more credit card debt than ever before, whose wages don't keep pace with inflation, whose ability to buy a home for his family drifts further and further away every year.
Why can't we take that 1% that we send to foreign "allies" (who themselves have better social services and spend more on their populations than we do) and give it to the average American who works hard and makes this country what it is?
But not average Americans, no, don't be silly. It's going back to the 1% and corporations, the "real Americans" who built this country.
Average Americans get nothing. Actually, it's worse than that we get less than nothing; we are losing social welfare programs that keep up alive and healthy. Instead, the plan as far as I can tell is to just let people who depend on those programs die.
Do better.
If the argument is "it's not that much money and it wouldn't help Americans much" then can't people also turn that on it's head? "It's not that much money, so it's not actually doing much real good overseas either"
All these programs are treated like cookie jars and everyone gets a nibble.
Note that the full Medicaid budget is $880B. So "slashing" it by 90% is just code for abolishing it entirely.
[to] the "real Americans" who built this country
And to the African immigrant that purchased it.
Say what you will, but if the only American citizens who receive aid from their country are senior citizens, veterans, and the impoverished, then the rest are gonna be mad when they see billions of their hard earned taxes flying out to other countries instead of spent on them. That just is what it is. Especially as the economic prospects for an average working man in the US gets worse and worse every year
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-18/aukus-congress-subcom...
Australia will also not have full control of their own submarines:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/07/austra...