The United States Agency for International Development has always been a boondoggle for the political class.
Many consultants, campaign workers, and long-term federal employees find a home at USAID during non-election cycles. My guess as people are rightfully offended by the topline spending programs, they will be much more offended when the line-item spending is known. For instance, in Serbia, Fox News reported that USAID spent $1.5 million to promote job opportunities for LGBTQ individuals. Maybe not with this specific program, but my guess is that we will find out that a Biden, LGBTQ staff person of Serbian descent paid a good chunk of that money to friends and family to “promote job opportunities for LGBTQ individuals.”
USAID started in 1961 with budget of $1 billion and has grown into a $43 billion agency. I’ll get into its growth rate compared to other government agencies over that time, and other specific projects that promoted radical, liberal ideas that were not mainstream in the US.
But first, an exciting announcement for Reasonable Arguments News and Nonsense Podcast - We will have our first guest in tomorrow’s edition, former reporter for the Associated Press Brendan Farrington. What is he doing now that he is “retired” from the AP? What are his thoughts on Politico, a rival news organization, receiving more than $9 million from USAID? That and much more!
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