I can paraphrase a statement made by the great Don Harwell. It asks the question, relative to this hand- wringing over USAID. It goes- who do you want happy? The 10% and up,corrupt people and programs? Or do you want the American people, around 300 million honest people to be happy? This is an easy choice for me. I see a bit of chaos ahead , and then a building boom, as foreigners build factories here. A hiring boom. prosperity in our hands. Trump and Vance.
Funny, they nothing said about USAID sending money to Hamas and the worst of the worst in Syria.
I remember my first encounter with the organization. We discovered an underground North Vietnamese field hospital in the South Vietnamese central highlands in 1967. They had a full stock of drugs and medical supplies with USAID logos on the packaging. Helping hands, indeed.
I am a new subscriber mostly enjoying The Free Press, but trying to parse out if it is as honest and trustworthy as it lays claims to be. This sensationalistic video is very disappointing, an example of cherry-picking data to fire up its opinionated readers rather than the more even-handed coverage, including opposing points of view, that has been taken on some other issues. Investigating and closing down questionable programming is a worthy goal, but closing down USAID in the ham-handed manner in which it is being done is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Besides depriving many of aid they have come to rely on, it will end up being extremely expensive, involve endless legal challenges, and damage the prestige and soft power of the U.S. in the world.
Also, The FP should take a look at those highly qualified, honest and hard-working Foreign Service Officers whose whole livelihood has come crashing down around them, who are being threatened, harrassed and gleefully labeled “criminals” and “lunatics”, and who now have 30 days to uproot and move their families and households, with no time to figure out where they can find employment opportunities and housing. Those who are gloating now should be wary of the plans Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk, and Musk’s little cadre of arrogant and vindictive minions may have that could affect their own futures.
I am so proud of all the great work you are doing at The Free Press. I am so happy to be a subscriber. Social media insults people who want to know the truth about the 4-years of highway robbery. This has come out of the pockets of all Americans, of every class, religion, and party.
During my time in business, I have taken on the management of a couple of companies losing money. I have found "a new broom sweeps clean" is not a bad start. Turned both companies around with a few unhappy people. Anyone that has encounters with different government agencies recognizes how bloated and inefficient many are.
The indifference of our supposedly educated liberals toward the DOGE findings is just another example of their ongoing disregard for Joe Biden’s corruption—how one family can operate so many shell companies—and the revelations from the Twitter files. These are not principled liberals but blind partisans who refuse to acknowledge the obvious. Most conservatives, however reluctantly, will admit Trump's flaws (an easy task) and critique the more extreme factions of their own party. Yet, among my many liberal friends, only one is willing to engage in a genuine discussion about these findings.
The unwillingness to address the findings—regardless of their impact on the overall budget—combined with blind outrage, underscores the reality of partisan actions by USAID and others. Ideally, we would see a representative from the left review the same data used by DOGE and call out any Republican misconduct within the organization as well (if such misconduct exists, which I doubt).
"Ideally, we would see a representative from the left review the same data used by DOGE and call out any Republican misconduct within the organization as well." And why do you think that's not happening? Not one deficit hawk on the left? And how could you be so foolish as to think that there's no grift and abuse on the right? So naive. The secondary goal of this campaign is to target the dems for the mid-terms. If they were actually bi-partisan then both sides would be outed, most likely equally.
I hope you will write a proper article about the biggest scam in history. In the last decade, the Democrats have become the party of corruption. There is your headline.
If these DOGE boys had been minted McKinsey, KPMG, Accenture, BCG, etc "proper" consultants, we wouldn't be hearing a single word.
When Al Gore wanted to reinvent the Fed bureaucracy, we heard nary a peep, even when each cut resulted in the rise of the 3rd Party Contractor empire.
When OPM says that it defines the rules for RIF, it forgets that the Federal Government wrote the rules for private company RIF with a heavy hand. And when the administration proclaims that having unionized workforces fixes the problems of bad management they forget that the "market" has a way of responding that benefits the shareholders first (Delaware), the taxing entities, and everybody else later.
And it only gets worse as you drill down to the local level where accountability gets even more muddy.
Sadly, a lot of people wearing golden handcuffs assumed it would last forever. Whether or not there is a rationalizing of the workforce, we should now ALL wake up the fact that evil capitalists are no worse than pigs at the trough.
The US has to cut cost or increase revenue. The path of least resistance is remove fat (by someone's definition) or increase the cost of taxes and services. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I'm supportive of this whole effort, but the firing of IT security people for refusing to hand over servers access without proper authorization is just plain wrong. They're literally doing their jobs.
That's bullshit. They have proper authorization. Getting the directive directly from the head of the Executive Branch, of which USAID is part, IS their authorization. It literally supercedes anything else.
That's like you saying the CEO of your company can't tell you what to do, only your direct report can tell you what to do. Don't be retarded.
So many diversion tactics going on right now and the fp is taking the bait hook, line, sinker. USAID accounts for $32B (.47%) of the 2024 US fiscal budget, yet 100% of the focus of media and onlookers. Cocaine dogs?! Given the need to find $1T of cuts, these measly line items are pure distraction from cuts that will hurt AMERICANS. In the spirit of AMERICA first how about we start thinking about where the lions share of substantive cuts will come - programs which serve lower/middle class AMERICANS: Food Assistance, Medicaid, Rental Assistance, Job Training, VA Medicsl Staff, social security disability programs. Then there’s cuts to staffing in general in a gov whose employees are already spread thin. Sure…find inefficiencies, and even cut foreign aid if you want, but the majority of the $1T will be largely an exercise in kicking AMERICAN people who are down. AKA people in your communities. PS: Dem leaders are such suckers for taking the bait on this. They learned nothing. Focus on AMERICANS morons!
I saw a post from an acquaintance who was organizing a “resistance” protest. She was calling for people to donate to impacted charities to help weather the storm…. Wouldn’t it be great if a consequence of reducing government funding was an uptick in contributions from interested citizens? Maybe Trump should rethink tax deductions to incentivize giving.
Government needs a state dept and military. Dump the rest and end this 90-year experiment in growing government to solve all problems and control citizens. We are broke and in 36 trillion in debt.
The fact that USAID was the first target for DOGE is a red flag it was a fat target. Any govt agency doling out money will have some bad apples, but USAID appears to have a truckload of them. Hoping the guilty go to jail.
I can paraphrase a statement made by the great Don Harwell. It asks the question, relative to this hand- wringing over USAID. It goes- who do you want happy? The 10% and up,corrupt people and programs? Or do you want the American people, around 300 million honest people to be happy? This is an easy choice for me. I see a bit of chaos ahead , and then a building boom, as foreigners build factories here. A hiring boom. prosperity in our hands. Trump and Vance.
Funny, they nothing said about USAID sending money to Hamas and the worst of the worst in Syria.
I remember my first encounter with the organization. We discovered an underground North Vietnamese field hospital in the South Vietnamese central highlands in 1967. They had a full stock of drugs and medical supplies with USAID logos on the packaging. Helping hands, indeed.
I am a new subscriber mostly enjoying The Free Press, but trying to parse out if it is as honest and trustworthy as it lays claims to be. This sensationalistic video is very disappointing, an example of cherry-picking data to fire up its opinionated readers rather than the more even-handed coverage, including opposing points of view, that has been taken on some other issues. Investigating and closing down questionable programming is a worthy goal, but closing down USAID in the ham-handed manner in which it is being done is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Besides depriving many of aid they have come to rely on, it will end up being extremely expensive, involve endless legal challenges, and damage the prestige and soft power of the U.S. in the world.
Also, The FP should take a look at those highly qualified, honest and hard-working Foreign Service Officers whose whole livelihood has come crashing down around them, who are being threatened, harrassed and gleefully labeled “criminals” and “lunatics”, and who now have 30 days to uproot and move their families and households, with no time to figure out where they can find employment opportunities and housing. Those who are gloating now should be wary of the plans Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk, and Musk’s little cadre of arrogant and vindictive minions may have that could affect their own futures.
Trump has done what he stated on the campaign trail. Ok?
I am so proud of all the great work you are doing at The Free Press. I am so happy to be a subscriber. Social media insults people who want to know the truth about the 4-years of highway robbery. This has come out of the pockets of all Americans, of every class, religion, and party.
During my time in business, I have taken on the management of a couple of companies losing money. I have found "a new broom sweeps clean" is not a bad start. Turned both companies around with a few unhappy people. Anyone that has encounters with different government agencies recognizes how bloated and inefficient many are.
I feel for the dogs...you know they were getting the good stuff, not all stepped on.
The indifference of our supposedly educated liberals toward the DOGE findings is just another example of their ongoing disregard for Joe Biden’s corruption—how one family can operate so many shell companies—and the revelations from the Twitter files. These are not principled liberals but blind partisans who refuse to acknowledge the obvious. Most conservatives, however reluctantly, will admit Trump's flaws (an easy task) and critique the more extreme factions of their own party. Yet, among my many liberal friends, only one is willing to engage in a genuine discussion about these findings.
The unwillingness to address the findings—regardless of their impact on the overall budget—combined with blind outrage, underscores the reality of partisan actions by USAID and others. Ideally, we would see a representative from the left review the same data used by DOGE and call out any Republican misconduct within the organization as well (if such misconduct exists, which I doubt).
"Ideally, we would see a representative from the left review the same data used by DOGE and call out any Republican misconduct within the organization as well." And why do you think that's not happening? Not one deficit hawk on the left? And how could you be so foolish as to think that there's no grift and abuse on the right? So naive. The secondary goal of this campaign is to target the dems for the mid-terms. If they were actually bi-partisan then both sides would be outed, most likely equally.
I hope you will write a proper article about the biggest scam in history. In the last decade, the Democrats have become the party of corruption. There is your headline.
If these DOGE boys had been minted McKinsey, KPMG, Accenture, BCG, etc "proper" consultants, we wouldn't be hearing a single word.
When Al Gore wanted to reinvent the Fed bureaucracy, we heard nary a peep, even when each cut resulted in the rise of the 3rd Party Contractor empire.
When OPM says that it defines the rules for RIF, it forgets that the Federal Government wrote the rules for private company RIF with a heavy hand. And when the administration proclaims that having unionized workforces fixes the problems of bad management they forget that the "market" has a way of responding that benefits the shareholders first (Delaware), the taxing entities, and everybody else later.
And it only gets worse as you drill down to the local level where accountability gets even more muddy.
Sadly, a lot of people wearing golden handcuffs assumed it would last forever. Whether or not there is a rationalizing of the workforce, we should now ALL wake up the fact that evil capitalists are no worse than pigs at the trough.
The US has to cut cost or increase revenue. The path of least resistance is remove fat (by someone's definition) or increase the cost of taxes and services. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I'm supportive of this whole effort, but the firing of IT security people for refusing to hand over servers access without proper authorization is just plain wrong. They're literally doing their jobs.
If Kamala had won and she appointed a team, we all know they would not have said a word.
That's bullshit. They have proper authorization. Getting the directive directly from the head of the Executive Branch, of which USAID is part, IS their authorization. It literally supercedes anything else.
That's like you saying the CEO of your company can't tell you what to do, only your direct report can tell you what to do. Don't be retarded.
How much money has The FP taken from USAID, Bari?
How about a story on POLITICO sucking off the public tit for years?
So many diversion tactics going on right now and the fp is taking the bait hook, line, sinker. USAID accounts for $32B (.47%) of the 2024 US fiscal budget, yet 100% of the focus of media and onlookers. Cocaine dogs?! Given the need to find $1T of cuts, these measly line items are pure distraction from cuts that will hurt AMERICANS. In the spirit of AMERICA first how about we start thinking about where the lions share of substantive cuts will come - programs which serve lower/middle class AMERICANS: Food Assistance, Medicaid, Rental Assistance, Job Training, VA Medicsl Staff, social security disability programs. Then there’s cuts to staffing in general in a gov whose employees are already spread thin. Sure…find inefficiencies, and even cut foreign aid if you want, but the majority of the $1T will be largely an exercise in kicking AMERICAN people who are down. AKA people in your communities. PS: Dem leaders are such suckers for taking the bait on this. They learned nothing. Focus on AMERICANS morons!
I saw a post from an acquaintance who was organizing a “resistance” protest. She was calling for people to donate to impacted charities to help weather the storm…. Wouldn’t it be great if a consequence of reducing government funding was an uptick in contributions from interested citizens? Maybe Trump should rethink tax deductions to incentivize giving.
Government needs a state dept and military. Dump the rest and end this 90-year experiment in growing government to solve all problems and control citizens. We are broke and in 36 trillion in debt.
The fact that USAID was the first target for DOGE is a red flag it was a fat target. Any govt agency doling out money will have some bad apples, but USAID appears to have a truckload of them. Hoping the guilty go to jail.