FFS, I’m getting sick of this kind of bullshit.
The Trump administration is ramping up its America First Global Health Strategy in its latest efforts to ditch the traditional USAID model by delivering billions in aid directly to several countries in Africa.
Under the new model so far, which bypasses the propping up of the “NGO industrial complex,” the United States has signed six memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with six African countries totaling over $4 billion in direct U.S. investment matched by over $1.6 billion from signatory countries.
I have a better idea. Instead of “investing” $4 billion in Africa, how about sending that kind of support to, oh, I dunno, our failing healthcare system right here in the U.S. of A.?
And by “system”, I don’t mean pharmaceutical companies or hospitals, either. I’m talking about pumping up Medicare or Medicaid — you know, people who may actually have voted for the current Administration in last year’s elections?
If you want me to be really blunt, here’s what I really mean.
Most American voters do not give a flying fuck about Africa, and Africa’s health problems. We Americans pay taxes, and we expect to see some kind of return from our government on those taxes in the form of civic improvements right here in the United States, not in shithole African countries that hate us, support our enemies like China, Iran and Russia, and live in a squalor of their own making.
Did I already mention that aid to Africa is the equivalent of pouring (taxpayer) dollars into a bottomless pit where it ends up filling the bank accounts of corrupt government officials? I did? Oh yeah, and note the date on which I said it.
I don’t care that $4 billion dollars is going to be spent “more efficiently” or whatever: I want that $4 billion to be spent in the United States, and not in fucking Africa. To repeat: it’s our money, taken from us at gunpoint, and if it’s going to be spent, we should be the beneficiaries and not some fly-bitten cesspit-dwellers in a hellhole of their own making.
Or — and here’s another thought — you (that is, the Trump Administration) can take less of our hard-earned money away from us, thus taking away our need for government “assistance” in the first place.
If I recall correctly, reducing our tax burden was one of the signature promises of the Republicans last year prior to the elections. Well, so far I’ve seen precious little of that activity taking place; and sending our tax money to Africa does not improve my mood any.
I know, it’s a lot more complicated than that, there are all sorts of policy implications and socio-political goals etc. etc. etc.
Here’s what I’ve learned. It’s always less complicated than it’s made out to be, and there is always a simpler solution than the one proposed.
I’m always hearing from DOGE (remember them?) how much money they’re supposedly “saving” us. Well, it doesn’t seem like all these spending cutbacks are doing us — the taxpayers — much good, because the average American is still living in a shit-show of financial uncertainty and hardship.
So instead of some high-falutin’ pronouncement of “America First Global Health Strategy”, allow me to suggest that you just drop the “Global” part. “America First Health Strategy” has a far better ring to it.
Keep our tax money at home, and reduce the amounts we have to pay. It really is that simple, you fucking thieves and morons.
I absolutely agree.
I’ve said it many times. I don’t give a fuck what the criminal gov’t does with the money after it is stolen.
I want the criminals to stop stealing it in the first place.
Is there a person in this country that is NOT well aware of the fact that no one spends money more inefficiently than the gov’t?
One of my major goals over the past 50 years has been to lessen the amount of money, time, and effort the criminal gov’t tries to steal from me all the time.
I hate fucking criminals.
Land of the free? My pimply white ass.
Other than the comment about “our failing healthcare system right here in the U.S. of A.?”, I mostly agree.
The thing to remember about most of this “direct” aid is that much of it comes with some pretty strong strings attached. Hospitals built with that aid will be built using equipment from American companies. Medicines will be bought from American companies (who had it made in India to save costs) &etc. So while African countries will benefit from it, it will also trickle back into the US.
That said, I would hope that the Trump administration is cognizant of the level of corruption outside the US, and is either taking steps to mitigate it, or to document the hell out of it and use it as an excuse to stop sending aid.
The health CARE system in America is not failing. Yes, there are some REALLY big problems with the insurance system, and top flight health care is expensive, but part of that is because we have very sophisticated hardware, software, and drugs that do *amazingly* better at what they do than 20 or 30 years ago.
MN seems to have a 3rd-world Government!
I think you can remove the conditional phrasing, “seems”
I agree.
Are we supposed to find happiness in the idea that less of our hard-earned taxes will be stolen by the latest despots in some African sh*t-hole than we’re currently losing? Why are we going all apoplectic over the theft of BILLIONS of dollars by Somali transplants in the frozen north if we’re just going to cut out the middleman and stuff it into the pockets of third-world thieves?
Yeah, I know. Some nameless, faceless, mid-level State Department wonk somewhere is working on a deal for SOMETHING we think we desperately need, trading cash for cargo. These things never change, no matter which party is in charge.
This will only end when taxes are made truly voluntary and the flow of giveaway dollars dries up.
Can’t remember where I heard this, and I don’t have any specific citations or provenance.
But Foreign Aid of whatever stripe is part of the shell game for quasi .gov money laundering scheme.
See, we want to print more $$$$ cuz that solves all of our ills (fiscal sobriety and self-denial are not serious options).
But if we dump those raw $$$$ on the US public we create a ton of inflation because the $$$$ you hold steadily become watered down (Basic Econ).
Therefore rather than pursue something unsound like fiscal responsibility, we dump the shit on Foreign countries with stipulations they have to spend it on US goods/Services. Thereby ameliorating inflation somewhate.
In the above scenario I’m sure there is a wink-wink understanding that some $$$$ is going to stick to the fingers of whatever kleptocrat is running the show, and some of it is going to return via various means to Team Jackass campaign coffers.
I was a Federal fraud examiner, or at least I tried to be, for 10 years after serving 38 years in the Navy.
That shit DOGE was doing? Tip of the iceberg, maybe 1-2% of the actual amount. I banged my head against a Federal brick wall for almost 10 years before I gave up. Not because I couldn’t find the fraud, hell, that was the easy part. The hard part was getting FedCo to do anything about it. Because if they choose to ignore it, and they almost always did, you don’t get paid.
My partner (nurse turned lawyer) and I focused on Federal healthcare fraud. Lots of low hanging fruit. I mean metric fucktons of low hanging fruit. You know what we found? Almost every large scale case was tied back to either organized crime or the Deep State (some obvious overlap there).
My big mistake was going after retired flag officers. Not all of them, just the crooked ones (ok, most of them). They left a trail of stink a mile wide and half as deep. It’s like they didn’t care. And honestly, they really didn’t need to because behind every one of them were congressional staffers or lobbyists that showed them how to do it and get away with it. Plus, they had layers of lawyers and I had one.
Maybe I quit too soon, but I doubt it. I got run off when a retired 3-star threatened to bring me back on active duty and court martial me. And he could have done it easily, because he’d done it before. These people get people killed for crossing them.
The only solution is taking graft out of government. How? No idea. I’m done.