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Hard Power and Soft Power

Spekkio

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
number9 said:
But this isn't how government budgets work. They don't get to the end of the budget and say, "Hey guys, we have $39B left. Do we give it to USAID or do we send it to American families?"

We deficit spend each and every year. The choice of whether or fund something or not is just that - a choice. It's not "Money for USAID or money for Spekkio" because it's not zero-sum.
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I'm aware of how the budgeting process works. You don't need to have an intricate knowledge of that process to understand that allocating $39B toward USAID in an appropriations bill is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

What I sought to do in my post is demonstrate that while $39B is an inconsequential amount of money to the federal government as a percentage of outlays, it can translate into a consequential amount of money for a working class American. If the US is going to be in the business of giving $39B in hand-outs, why are we giving it to people overseas when we can't fund our own government and/or take care of our own people? That is the principle of the question and "well, it's only 0.58% of our budget" not only doesn't answer the mail, it's completely tone deaf.

"Absolutely no impact to anyone living within the borders of the U.S." is demonstrably false. It's not 4% of the deficit either, it's more like 2% for FY2026.
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It really has negligible impact to our society. Like, maybe 0.58% of people at most are impacted by it. As for the budget numbers... I guess a growing deficit from 2024 is reason to slash USAID, no?
 
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taxi1

taxi1

Well-Known Member
pilot
If the American people don't want to fund foreign aid through USAID, as expressed through the Legislature, than that's how the process is supposed to work. Wind it down, wrap it up, close it out.

It's the "feed it to the woodchipper" part. There are lots of fellow Americans forward located in shithole countries that got their lives fed to the woodchipper via email, to the sound of cheering by lots of other Americans back home. The cruelty of the process is a feature, not a bug.

JTS11 said:
Evangelical
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Saw a great quote from an Evangelical preacher, "When you worship power, compassion and mercy will look like sins."

Edit: corrected the quote
 
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sevenhelmet

sevenhelmet

Low calorie attack from the Heartland
pilot
taxi1 said:
If the American people don't want to fund foreign aid through USAID, as expressed through the Legislature, than that's how the process is supposed to work. Wind it down, wrap it up, close it out.

It's the "feed it to the woodchipper" part. There are lots of fellow Americans forward located in shithole countries that got their lives fed to the woodchipper via email, to the sound of cheering by lots of other Americans back home. The cruelty of the process is a feature, not a bug.


Saw a great quote from an Evangelical preacher, "When you worship power, mercy and compassion become sins."
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100%

There are also everyday American farmers in my home state who are already suffering from frozen contract payments and rising costs in the face of the USAID shutdown, funding freezes, and the threat of tariffs. Crops are rotting in storage with no plan, because there was no wind-down period permitted by King Musk and Court Jester Trump. The irony is, many large farm organizations backed Trump.

I wonder how much it's going to cost to bail them all out? Or should we just let farms fail, because that's how Trump is "helping the average American family"?
 
Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
number9 said:
$39B (my understanding of USAID's total budget) out of the $6.75T spending budget is ~0.58%.

$3000 out of a household's $45,000 is ~6.67%.

I know what point you were trying to make, but it just reemphasizes mine -- people are worried about the wrong stuff. Especially when you point out that much of USAID's budget goes to Americans anyway, because we spend it on American goods and services. (Ironically, this is known as "tied aid", and is not unanimously popular in the aid world as it can often be very inefficient.)
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But how can you say “people are worried about the wrong stuff”? I imagine most people know exactly what to be worried about in their day-to-day lives. It isn’t about the math, it’s about the feeling.
 
sevenhelmet

sevenhelmet

Low calorie attack from the Heartland
pilot
Griz882 said:
But how can you say “people are worried about the wrong stuff”? I imagine most people know exactly what to be worried about in their day-to-day lives. It isn’t about the math, it’s about the feeling.
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But aren't feelings what you're defending here? Your argument earlier was (forgive my paraphrasing, here): "His policies are popular, let him do his job." So feelings appear to be the dominant factor.

Today's insult is the "SAVE Act", that prevents anyone from voting if their current legal name doesn't match their birth certificate. Wonder who that will affect (sarcasm). All those married women didn't need to vote anyway, right? Their husbands know what is best. (That's more sarcasm, in case anyone is dumb enough to think otherwise.)

Seriously, what a piece of trash legislation. I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves.
 
Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
sevenhelmet said:
But aren't feelings what you're defending here? Your argument earlier was (forgive my paraphrasing, here): "His policies are popular, let him do his job." So feelings appear to be the dominant factor.

Today's insult is the "SAVE Act", that prevents anyone from voting if their current legal name doesn't match their birth certificate. Wonder who that will affect (sarcasm). All those married women didn't need to vote anyway, right? Their husbands know what is best. (That's more sarcasm, in case anyone is dumb enough to think otherwise.)

Seriously, what a piece of trash legislation. I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves.
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Your paraphrase is a bit off…I said he won the election so let him do his job and consistently caveat that by noting Congress must do theirs. If you want to sum this up…Congress (both sides) is at fault. Congress has been in work avoidance/job preservation mode for far too long.

But, more to your point, voter “feelings” are going to dominate the political domain for quite some time. I get it, many here don’t like it, but all those other people with a vote don’t like the technocrat approach to the issues. This is democracy, warts and all.
 
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