Welfare

By now, you’ve no doubt seen headlines and heaps of coverage on President Trump’s ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid’ Executive Order (EO), which has predominantly impacted the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). You’ve probably read about these tariffs too, or at least heard of them.

With so much noise on this issue, we thought we’d dig into how the world’s response to these funding cuts sheds light on a much bigger problem than just government spending.

The Foreign Aid Executive Order

On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump signed the ‘Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid‘ EO, claiming that the U.S. “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values.” Instead, these bodies “serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries,” the EO continued.

As a result, Trump implemented:

1. “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy.  All department and agency heads with responsibility for United States foreign development assistance programs shall immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds to foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors pending reviews of such programs for programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy, to be conducted within 90 days of this order.  The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) shall enforce this pause through its apportionment authority.
2. “Reviews of United States foreign assistance programs.  Reviews of each foreign assistance program shall be ordered by the responsible department and agency heads under guidelines provided by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Director of OMB.
3. “Determinations.  The responsible department and agency heads, in consultation with the Director of OMB, will make determinations within 90 days of this order on whether to continue, modify, or cease each foreign assistance program based upon the review recommendations, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State.
4. “Resumption of paused development assistance funding.  New obligations and disbursements of foreign development assistance funds may resume for a program prior to the end of the 90-day period if a review is conducted, and the Secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB, decide to continue the program in the same or modified form.  Additionally, any other new foreign assistance programs and obligations must be approved by the Secretary of State or his designee, in consultation with the Director of OMB.”

What Happened Next?

According to the press, Trump’s EO immediately led to a disruption in the “global fight against modern slavery,” evidently “women and girls” are most “at risk” as a result of these temporary cuts, while “millions will be affected” across the world. The Amazon rainforest will collapse, HIV is going to explode, Russian influence is going to takeover, and marginalized communities around the world won’t have anyone to help them, at least, that’s if you read the Associated Press reports.

In reality, Sec. of State Marco Rubio signed a waiver allowing core “life-saving” humanitarian needs to be met, according to the Center for American Progress. And if all of these programs are essential, they’ll be back on the books within the 90 day window. More than that, if these programs are this essential, why are they dependent on just American funding to sustain themselves entirely?

Work Doesn’t Have To Halt

Christian groups across “Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia,” have all continued to work, despite the suspension. “We have chosen this course for the time being because as a Christian organization, we center our decisions on the worth and dignity of ALL people—the people we serve and our staff,” Medical Teams International told TIME Magazine.

How Do The Tariffs Relate To These Issues?

Technically, Trump’s tariffs don’t really relate to the work of USAID, but more to the larger global response to Trump’s moves since reentering office.

Trump has threatened huge tariffs against nations who many feel are doing harm to the U.S. For example, Trump threatened China, Mexico and Canada with tariffs as a result of the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl.”

“Chinese tariffs on US coal, gas, and oil are unlikely to have a significant impact or a negative impact on the US economy,” Hudson Institute fellow John Lee told DCNF. “These are commodities which the US can sell to other markets quite easily. For example, the US is the world’s largest exporter of LNG and can sell more to the UK and EU. Chinese tariffs on agricultural machinery, trucks and large cars are also not overly significant because China is not a major buyer of these American products.” Within days of Trump’s tariff threats against China, Taiwan promised to invest more in the U.S. This is just one example of how using America’s financial strength can benefit us all. China also almost-immediately opened up talks in order to avoid another set of Trump’s tariffs. 

Canada’s soon-to-be ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau buckled to Trump’s tariffs shortly after they were threatened, promising at least #1.3 billion toward increasing our northern border security. Cartels were also designated terrorist organizations by Canada. Together, the U.S and Canada will now work to combat “organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering,” Trudeau revealed on social media.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum gave into Trump within hours of the tariffs being announced, promising to deploy $10,000 National Guard soldiers along the border in exchange for a 30-day pause on the tariffs.

Read More at Million Voices

Fox News host Jesse Watters took aim at the Biden administration during a recent segment of Fox News Primetime, calling out what he described as massive waste and corruption in the handling of taxpayer funds.

Watters detailed millions of dollars being spent on questionable foreign projects, arguing that the government is misallocating resources while ignoring problems at home.

REPORT: Biden paid $5 BILLION to “unnamed foreign sources”—and no one knows where it went.

“Whoever is getting our money is so shady, our government can’t even put it in writing. They just call it aid.”@JesseBWatters then rattled off more so-called “aid” from your tax dollars… pic.twitter.com/rvh9F4NyaT

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) February 7, 2025

“The government’s been robbing us blind,” Watters stated.

“We’ve been writing checks—6 million for tourism in Egypt. Like Egypt needs help with that. They have the pyramids. We should be spending money on cleaning up California so that tourists can vacation in California.”

He continued to list expenditures he deemed unnecessary, including $2 million for the BBC to promote diversity coverage in Libya, $20 million for Iraqi Sesame Street, and $1 million for an LGBTQ group in Armenia.

“We’re bribing the BBC to cover Libya better,” Watters said.

“Why a million for a gay group in Armenia? There it is. We paid 20 million for Iraqi Sesame Street. You paid for Bert and Ernie in Baghdad. Weren’t we just bombing these people? Now we’re paying for their Muppet shows. We’re sick. There is something sick with us. You also paid for an Irish DEI musical.”

Watters did not hold back in his criticism of USAID, the agency responsible for administering foreign aid.

He pointed to $2 million spent on transgender surgeries in Guatemala, questioning where the money actually went.

“This is a government theft ring,” Watters said.

“We spent $2 million for trans surgeries in Guatemala. I’m going to go out on a limb—one Guatemalan dude got breast implants, and we probably kicked back the rest of the cash to a crooked Guatemalan politician and the corrupt liberal CEO of the group they laundered the money through.”

Watters went further, arguing that such extravagant spending could have “turned the whole world trans” and questioning the true cost of projects like the $20 million allocated for Iraqi Sesame Street.

“You really think it costs 20 million to produce an episode of Sesame Street? You could hire Tom Cruise to play Oscar the Grouch for that money,” he quipped.

In addition to these projects, Watters accusedJoe Biden of sending $5 billion to unnamed foreign sources, suggesting the funds were being used for political bribes and left-wing subsidies.

“Check this—Biden paid nearly $5 billion to unnamed foreign sources,” Watters said.

“Whoever is getting our money is so shady our government can’t even put it in writing. They just call it aid.”

He speculated that much of this money was used to bribe foreign officials, secure business deals for American companies, or funnel resources into left-wing foundations.

“Most of the people getting money from these grants aren’t in the country. They pump it into overseas organizations and then we never see them,” he said. “Any liberal with an International Women’s Studies degree can launch a 501(c)(3), apply for a government grant, and spin it off into a left-wing piggy bank.”

Watters also took aim at USAID’s $235 million allocation to the National Democratic Institute (NDI), suggesting that much of the money was used for executive salaries rather than democracy programs.

“USAID paid $235 million to the National Democratic Institute. Well, that sounds benign. No. Millions of that money went to executive compensation—meaning salaries for all the Liberals with no skills,” Watters explained.

“I bet most of that money didn’t go to supporting democracy. It went to supporting liberal lifestyles.”

He accused Democrats of profiting off taxpayer dollars, claiming that the USAID system has been a financial pipeline for left-wing operatives for years.

“Democrats have been sucking off the teat of government for decades, and Trump caught them,” Watters said.

“As one Trump insider says, you bring USAID to heel and you end the Democrat gravy train.”

Watters suggested that USAID was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to government waste, arguing that deeper investigations would uncover massive misallocation of funds across multiple agencies.

“USAID is just the beginning. You start peeling back at the layers of every agency, and all you find out is pork that winds up in the wrong people’s pockets,” he said.

Read More at RVM News

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent a letter and waiver to President Donald Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that, if signed, would allow the state to implement a work requirement for certain Medicaid recipients.

We want to give people a hand up, not a hand out.

Arkansas just announced its plans for a Medicaid work requirement. If able-bodied, working age adults get free healthcare, they should be expected to work, go to school, volunteer, or be home with their kids. pic.twitter.com/034oSTV7p9

— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) January 29, 2025

The Full Letter

Dear Mr. Kennedy,

President Trump declared it in his inaugural address: a new American golden age has begun. But our country cannot unleash unprecedented prosperity if able-bodied, childless adults sit on the sidelines. And we won’t slash our deficit if our welfare programs pay people to stay on the sidelines.

Today, I am submitting a waiver on behalf of the State of Arkansas to allow us to implement a work requirement for all able-bodied, working-age recipients of Arkansas’ Medicaid expansion program, ARHOME. Under the prior Trump Administration, Arkansas was successfully implementing a work requirement before federal litigation halted our progress. This new waiver reduces administrative hurdles and other issues for legitimate Medicaid expansion recipients while still achieving our policy goal: to have Medicaid serve as a safety net rather than a poverty trap.

Our goal is never to take services away from those who need it but to help people stand on their own two feet so they don’t have to count on the government. 

There are 220,000 able-bodied, working-age adults in Arkansas receiving free healthcare courtesy of the taxpayer, costing us more than $2.2 billion each year – and growing. Of those recipients, estimates show nearly 90,000 have no job. Most Arkansans work hard to pay for their health insurance while these healthy adults do not work at all. That is a backward, broken system.

Work is more than just a steady paycheck. It is a way to build responsibility and learn skills. It is an escape from the compounding problems – crime, fatherlessness, hunger – facing our poorest communities. It is a way to get off the path to poverty and get on the path to prosperity. And with Arkansas’ record low unemployment rate, it’s not hard to find.

President Trump has laid out a clear vision for America: one of smaller government, greater prosperity, stronger families, and better communities. All Americans can contribute to that great future, but not if they are watching from the economic sidelines. I ask that you approve this waiver when you become Secretary and let us get to work.

Respectfully,
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Governor of Arkansas

Read More at Million Voices

Former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller criticized the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for implementing policies that undermine border security, alleging that these policies have allowed child traffickers free rein under the Biden administration.

Miller asserted that President Donald Trump now has the authority to take action against USAID’s funding decisions.

“So he has plenary authority to carry out the foreign policy of the United States. Bureaucrats at USAID cannot interfere in the affairs of foreign countries to prop up regimes, thwart America’s interests, facilitate mass illegal immigration, or promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies that violate federal civil rights law,” Miller stated.

He further argued that USAID and other agencies have helped fund organizations that advocate for open borders.

🚨 Trump Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller just DEMOLISHED USAID

“There is NO LAW passed by Congress that says we need to funnel money to organizations that traffic children.”

“Bureaucrats at USAID have NO RIGHT to facilitate mass illegal immigration, or facilitate DEI laws.… pic.twitter.com/JOYY0mN7wX

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 4, 2025

“All of this violates federal civil rights law. The President is at the apex of authority here. Moreover, as you mentioned, Congress doesn’t dictate to these agencies how to spend the money. Agencies exercise discretion when awarding grants and contracts,” Miller explained.

He added that funds currently directed toward non-governmental organizations (NGOs) supporting open borders can now be redirected to strengthen border security efforts and deportations.

“For example, these NGOs that promote open borders receive tens of billions of dollars. Congress never passed a law giving those organizations that money. President Trump can pause all those funds,” he said.

Miller also emphasized that agencies have the power not only to halt funding but also to redirect it toward initiatives that enhance border enforcement.

“Not only can the agencies pause those funds, but they can also reallocate them to organizations that support border security, deport illegal aliens, track down criminal aliens, and provide detention for dangerous illegal immigrants in this country,” he said.

Read More at the Daily Fetched

Michigan is ditching work requirements for able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid under legislation signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last week. The legislation, approved along party lines during Democrats’ lame duck session last year, repeals a requirement for able-bodied adults receiving Medicaid under the Healthy Michigan Plan to complete 20 hours of “workforce engagement” per week, effective April 2.

“The repeal of the burdensome work requirements provision is a win for Michiganders who cannot afford commercial health insurance,” bill sponsor Rep. Julie Rogers, D-Kalamazoo, said in a statement cited by the news outlet. “Medicaid is health care, period, and was never intended to be a jobs program.”

Republicans adopted the work requirement in 2018, but it was halted by a federal court within months. A federal judge ruled the requirement unlawful in 2020, despite exemptions for single parents taking care of children, pregnant mothers, people with disabilities, and others caring for young children or who have a medical condition. Beyond actual work, beneficiaries were able to fulfill the requirement with education, training, unpaid internships, substance use disorder treatment, and community service, as well.

Read the Full Story at The Midwesterner