Some Voices on USAID
It's been a whirlwind
There have been some good podcasts and conversations on the USAID implosion, as Musk and Doge come at it with a bulldozer. The revelations have been shocking.
If you haven’t yet listened to Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn on America This Week - they cover it extensively in the best way.
They dropped another one today, which might is behind the paywall - you can get a free preview on Spotify.
Matt followed up with a great piece today:
Tucker Carlson talked to Mike Benz about it - always a mind-blowing experience. Wind him up and let him go:
Bret Weinstein on Joe Rogan:
The Real Clear Politics gang talking about Doge:
Jimmy Dore:
Here is press secretary Karoline Leavitt explaining how some of the money has been spent:
The legacy press is doing its best to enrage the public, leading to protests. It does seem like an odd thing for the Democrats to burn through their outrage over it.
And here is the video Mike Benz references by Milton Friedman:
I’m working on a longer piece but I thought I’d share some of this with you.
USAID is probably the worst example of wasteful spending and corruption but the waste goes on at every agency in the government. I worked for the Census Bureau for 23 years and although most of the people I worked with were good conscientious people, most of the work they were doing simply didn't need to be done. There is just no incentive for the government to do anything efficiently. I estimate that about 70 to 80 percent of the workforce could be cut and nobody would notice.
I've heard from some people I used to work with and some are complaining that the government is under attack. They have just received the most generous buyout offer I have ever heard of (an offer I would have jumped at) and they are acting like they are poor victims after spending the last four years working from home. The counties surrounding Washington DC are the richest in the country. The lack of self awareness of these people is stunning.
This is really a BFD. Pretty soon even the dumber people are going to understand that USAID was spending copious amounts of our money to influence domestic politics and force the trans religion on the world. How did it benefit the cause of the US to bring this BS to the rest of the world?