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Unelected Billionaire Elon Musk Is Shutting Down the Government Agency USAID (gizmodo.com)

submitted 1 day ago by pelespirit@sh.itjust.works to c/politics@sh.itjust.works

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

On Monday morning, employees for USAID got an email telling them to stay out of their headquarters. The email was signed by Gavin Kliger, one of the young engineers working with Musk who helped him gain control of the Office of Personnel Management last week.

In a late-night X Space over the weekend, Musk said that he and his DOGE cronies had gotten into USAID and found it wanting. “As we dug into USAID it became apparent that what we have here is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms,” Musk said. “If you have an apple with a worm in it, you can take the worm out. If you have a whole ball of worms, it’s hopeless. USAID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple you just need to get rid of the whole thing. That’s why it’s got to go. It’s beyond repair.”

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[–] Wytch@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 day ago

The end of USAID would mean the collapse of American soft power abroad and a decline in American influence. USAID did not always spend money well. It spent billions attempting to reshape Afghanistan in its own image and lost much of it to corruption and foolish nation-building schemes. It paid poppy farmers to grow soybeans instead of heroin-producing plants, paid for security forces who only existed on paper, and spent billions of dollars on roads that did not materialize.

It would have been amazing to have had a serious Congress of adults go through our spending line by line and eliminate wasteful and imperialistic spending. America has been pissing billions away on interfering in foreign countries to further our own interests or line the pockets of contractors while letting her own people starve on the streets.

But this is the definition of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Besides being illegal, Musk's takeover is harmful and dangerous. His apple analogy makes no mention of what fruits will be planted in its place. So my assumption is, none. This is nothing but harmful for us and the people that rely on our economic power.