By The Signal Editorial Board
USAID, U.S. aid. Sounds good doesn’t it? And appropriate, right?
With all the disasters we recently have had — the East Palestine train derailment a couple years ago, the North Carolina hurricane a few months ago, the Palisades and Eaton fires last month, not to mention our homeless and others in need — we certainly have a lot of causes in America that can use the $43 billion annual budget for USAID, right?
Wrong.
USAID is not U.S. Aid. It stands for United States Agency for International Development.
USAID has recently come under intense scrutiny for its spending practices, with allegations of significant waste, mismanagement and fraud.
OK, but what kind of international development?
In response to these concerns, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and created by President Donald Trump, has taken decisive action to audit and reform USAID operations. Musk’s team, after initially being blocked from getting access, has gained access to the U.S. Treasury payment system to halt funds to USAID, aiming to freeze funds appropriated by Congress.
This move has sparked concerns among longtime civil servants, The Deep State and Democratic lawmakers. It seems they didn’t want to be audited.
Finally, he got access to look and here are some of the items he found our hard-earned tax paying dollars were funding.
• $1.5 million to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia.
• $70,000 for a DEI musical in Ireland.
• $20 million for a new “Sesame Street” show in Iraq.
• $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia.
• $2 million for sex change activism in Guatemala.
• $1.5 million to promote LBGTQ+ in Jamaica.
• $8 million to Politico.
• Millions to the BBC.
• $80 million to the Clinton Foundation.
• $4.5 million to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan.
• $10 million to an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, Nusra Front.
• $7.9 million to teach Sri Lanka journalists how to avoid binary gendered language.
• $1.5 million for DEI in Belarus.
• $3.9 million for LGBTQ causes in Macedonia.
• $8.3 million for DEI in Nepal.
• $1.5 million for the Cuban media ecosystem.
• $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.
• $5.5 million to promote LBGTQ+ in Uganda.
• $56 million for tourism in Egypt and Tunisia.
• Millions to Hamas in Gaza.
• $5 million to the Eco Health Alliance, one of the non-government organizations funding bat virus research projects at the Wuhan lab.
• $64 million going to terrorists and terrorist organizations.
• $19 million to promote inclusion in Vietnam.
• $10 million to train transgender mice, rats and monkeys.
• Sent Ukranian fashion students to Paris for fashion week.
• $15 million for condoms for the Taliban.
• $300,000 for diverse bird watchers.
• $2.5 million to study the fertility of transgender mice.
The Biden administration also funded thousands of reporters from over 700 media outlets. No wonder the mainstream national media treated him with kid gloves.
The funding included:
• Politico, $34 million.
• New York Times, $50 million.
• The Associated Press, $19 million.
These are only some of the useless, wasteful programs USAID is spending taxpayer dollars on.
To be fair, some of the money spent by USAID is spent on legitimate and useful programs.
But the permanent government employees and the Deep State and some politicians are going crazy. They don’t want anyone to know how and why USAID is spending your money.
They are incredulous that Elon Musk is trying to find out. They don’t like his audit or the fact that he puts a stop on spending until he finds out how it is being spent. It’s funny how the last administration hired 80,000 IRS agents to audit your financial returns to pay taxes but doesn’t like it when someone tries to audit the government to find out how and why your hard-earned taxpaying dollars are spent.
Elon Musk’s commitment to auditing USAID reflects a broader initiative to promote transparency and accountability within federal agencies. By identifying and addressing instances of wasteful spending, Musk and DOGE aim to redirect resources toward programs that genuinely benefit both the United States and the global community. This endeavor not only safeguards taxpayer interests but also reinforces the nation’s dedication to efficient and impactful foreign aid.
We have a $36 trillion deficit in this country. That’s $106,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in this country. We need to start spending our money wisely.
For decades, USAID taxpayers have funneled massive sums of money to the ridiculous and, in many cases, malicious pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with no oversight. This needs to stop. We are all for charity for those in need …
But charity starts at home.
