Exposing The Troubled History Of The USAID

A storm of controversy swirls over a relatively unknown federal government agency that doles out billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to foreign countries.  New reporting has unearthed reports stretching over years warning about fraud, waste, sexual abuse and funding linked to terrorists.

President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ignited the firestorm by uncovering reckless, wasteful spending and a lack of management accountability at the U.S. Agency for International Development.  The president shuttered USAID headquarters, locking out employees.  

USAID Background 

The agency, staffed by more than 10,000 workers, handed out $40 billion in 2023, the last year for which government figures are available. That workforce level does not include contractors.  USAID maintains more than 60 country and regional missions that develop projects to be funded. 

The bureaucracy distributed $42 billion to 130 countries, including Gaza.  In 2022, Congress appropriated an additional $46 billion to be managed partially or wholly by the agency for assistance to Ukraine. Since 2017, the USAID budget has more than doubled. 

An investigation and research by this writer found the troubled agency has a checkered history of a lack of transparency, credibility and a disregard for oversight.  Despite numerous admonishments, USAID continues to operate as if the agency is not answerable to the president or the federal government.

As a recent example, current and former USAID staff revolted when the agency's director Samantha Power voiced support for Israel after the country was attacked by Hamas in October. Many agency employees act as if they are running USAID, accountable only to themselves. 

Raising Red Flags

As far back as 2018, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Inspector General for USAID sounded alarms over the agency's funneling of taxpayer money to outside groups with limited oversight. Not only did the agency ignore the red flags, it doubled down on obfuscation. 

The agency, which boasts it prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion, gifted United Nations agencies, development banks and foreign-based non-governmental organizations (NGO) with billions to be spread across the globe, including in lawless hotspots, including Sudan, Syria and Haiti. 

These activities, in particular, attracted the attention of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the GAO. The two discovered an appalling lack of oversight by the agency's practice of funneling the money through third parties.  

Here are selected highlights from reports from the Inspector General and the GAO:

• USAID failed to document 519 instances of misconduct for funds transmitted to the UN'S World Food Program.  Instead, the USAID only reported  29 instances of potential misconduct for aid, reflecting non-compliance with the agency's own standards.
• Investigations were hampered by UN agencies to prevent diversion of USAID funds to the terrorist organization Hamas. The OIG also listed its concern that United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRA) employees implicated in the October 7 attack on Israel had infiltrated USAID funded organizations. 
• USAID failed to share with the Inspector General information about UN individuals who have been terminated for criminal and serious misconduct.  In 2023, World Health Organization officials were found to have sexually assaulted women and girls while performing USAID-funded Ebola programs in Africa.
• OIG special agents have encountered resistance from foreign-based NGO's when requesting information about individuals alleged to have perpetuated fraud or engaged in sexual exploitation in running USAID-funded programs.
• A GAO report noted the USAID bureaus and missions lack ability to conduct direct oversight in conflict zones to verify the funds are being used for the intended humanitarian purpose.
• Inspectors found the USAID does not have "quality" data to support its $150 billion climate change initiative.  "Specifically, the data was not complete, accurate, accessible or current" the inspectors found. 
• The OIG ferreted out a scheme by a non-governmental organization in South Africa to bilk USAID out of $671,914 after the group submitted false payment claims to the agency.  The OIG cited other examples of fraudulent claims in its 2025 report, including a $2.02 million payment to an  Norwegian aid group. 
• A GAO analysis of the agency discovered the USAID sent money through a cutout organization that ended up funding China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.  To date, even Congress has been able to determine the amount of the funding. 

In its 2025 report, the OIG concluded that "theft and diversion of cash assistance, food, medicine and other commodities frustrates the intent of the United Sates" while undermining the agency's mission of humanitarian assistance. 

These reports are nonpartisan, authored by federal government employees and agencies.  The information has been available to Congress and the executive branch.  Why has there been no action to address the concerns from either political party?  That is the question no corporate media are asking.

A few in Congress have been aware of USAID's pattern of obstructionism. Iowa Senate Republican Joni Ernst revealed how the agency has been "stonewalling" her office for years as she sought documents detailing aid to businesses in Ukraine.  

USAID claimed the information was classified to deny the senator's requests.  After Ernst demanded to speak to the USAID Office of Security, the agency handed over a few documents. She discovered that 5,000 Ukrainian businesses received awards of up to $2 million each. 

DOGE Findings 

DOGE has exposed hundreds of millions of dollars for dubious USAID directed aid:

• $2 million for sex changes and LGBTQ activism in Guatemala.
• $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia's workplaces and business communities.
• $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt.
• $70,000 for production of a DEI musical in Ireland.
• $47,000 for transgender operations in Colombia.
• $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam.
• $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru. 
• $2 million for pottery classes in Morocco. 
• $20 million for a Sesame Street workshop in Iraq to promote "inclusion, mutual respect and understanding across ethnic, religious and sectarian groups."
• $45 million to provide food assistance and economic support for Venezuelan migrants in Columbia. 

This reality stands in stark contrast to the growing legacy media stories that have appeared since the scandal broke. They paint a picture of USAID funding for desperate people in third-world countries in need of food assistance and medicine.  There has been no coverage of the OIG and GAO reports.

The media complicity has given cover for Democrats to spend political energy haranguing unelected "billionaire" Elon Musk for the revelations. The oligarchs are ruling Washington, they shout in defiance. Where's the outrage for USAID's wasteful spending of taxpayers dollars? Crickets. 

Democrats are targeting Musk as the villain because they endorse USAID's funding of social issues.  They are furious Musk exposed the foreign aid boondoggles. 

USAID Defenders 

USAID defenders make the case that the DOGE examples of millions of dollars of waste only amount to a fraction of the agency budget. Excusing a "little" misuse of funds is an example of Washington's hubris. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren reflects the Democrat Party's attitude:

"There is nothing in the constitution that says ordinary Americans have a right to see what we're spending tax dollars on," she said. Actually, Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution requires the government to publish regular statements about how taxpayer money is spent.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made it clear he intends to fold USAID into the State Department, thus ending the agency's autonomous operation.  The secretary wants to continue foreign aid, but with more oversight and funding supporting the administration's objectives. 

Referencing the USAID, the president said "the American's people's money must be spent to advance their priorities, not line the pockets of contractors or to maintain projects that don't work." Typical Trump, overstatement? No, that quote is from 2009 and the president was Barrack Obama.  

No government agency no matter how noble sounding its name or mission has the right to fritter away taxpayer dollars. By defending the indefensible, Democrats are showing they are out of touch with average Americans who expect efficiency, transparency and accountability in their government.   

How Your Tax Dollars Helped Fuel Inflation

Ask Americans what's fueling inflation and the answers are predictable.  Gas prices. Food costs. Higher wages. Supply chain snarls.  Even Putin.  No one blames Washington's big spenders. They should. In a two year period, Congress shelled out a record $9.95 trillion dollars, contributing to inflation. 

The classic definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods.  Some modern economists prefer to define inflation as a general increase in prices and a fall in the purchasing value of money. That describes what transpired when the economy opened up in late 2020 after Covid lockdowns. 

Once the shackles of pandemic restrictions were lifted, Congress pumped a record $3.13 trillion in economic relief in 2020.  Then Washington's privileged class doubled spending to $6.82 trillion under Biden. The economy was flooded with money at a time when supplies of nearly everything was scarce. 

Economic experts, including Ben Bernanke and Larry Summers, sounded the alarm in early 2021 about the spending gusher.  No one listened.  The priority of every Washington sewer dweller is to get re-elected by showering their district or state with pet projects or sending checks directly to voters.

Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in 2021 triggered  an avalanche of dollars cascading into the economy. Checks for $1,400 rolled out to Americans.  Unemployment insurance increased. Child tax cash payments replaced credits. Cities and states were the beneficiaries of billions of dollars. 

Both parties share the shame.  That's why they are looking for scapegoats like Putin. Congress is responsible for approving the annual budget and directing spending. In recent years, Washington has employed budget smokescreens to hoodwink the public while it continues the spending rampage. 

Congress last passed an annual appropriations budget bill in 1996. Since then, Congress has junked the time-honored appropriation process and resorted to a series of massive appropriation bills.  In addition, Washington's aristocracy uses so-called continuing resolutions to fund the government.

This budget chicanery is a deliberate charade to hide the gargantuan amount of taxpayer dollars spent in a single year.  This process led to a $2.2 trillion Cares Act in March 2020. It provided cover for a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.  And the the mother of all spending, a $2.3 trillion appropriations bill in 2021.

Granted COVID lockdowns created a unique economy quandary: How to jumpstart the feeble economy?  A Tsunami of billions of dollars were dispatched to airlines, small businesses and stimulus payments to Americans.  All that spending, however,  led to a bloated supply of dollars in the economy. 

But Washington's nobility just kept doubling down on spending. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that more than "$1 trillion in pandemic relief and aid approved over the last year remains unspent."  Washington's bureaucracy cannot spend as fast as Congress appropriates money. 

While your tax dollars are idling, they get wasted by your federal government. The GAO, a government watchdog agency, presented its annual report in May identifying $552 billion in government waste and redundancy. Those dollars will never be refunded to the taxpayers who forked over the money.

That is just the tip of a Titanic iceberg. Non-partisan groups estimate that overall fraud in the COVID Paycheck Protection Act (PPA) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program reached $84 billion.  The money was stolen by criminals.  It was inevitable given lax reporting requirements.

Congress did that.  In its rush to prime the pump, it sent billions to the Small Business Administration which spent it as if money was candy at Halloween.  The Department of Justice has promised to find and prosecute criminals.  But taxpayers get nothing. Now the administration stumps for higher taxes.

Oh, and at a time when the White House was requesting more COVID relief funds this January, an enterprising report by a budget think-tank uncovered that the $1.9 trillion relief package had $800 billion remaining in unspent funds.  The appropriation had been approved in 2021.   

As your blood pressure spikes, the latest Federal Fumbles compiled by Oklahoma Senator James Lankford contains some doozies. Two billion dollars were frittered away by not finishing the border wall. Contractors were paid the money by the government not to build the wall.  Say what?

The U.S. Grant Presidential library in New Jersey received $500,000 for an art wall.  This is the penultimate of pet project payoffs to New Jersey's senators and Congressional representatives. Another $500,000 was dished out to the Nansen Ski Club in New Hampshire. Nice, huh?

But there's more.  A total of $2.65 million was conveyed to China for their health programs. The fisherman's co-op in Guam snagged a nifty $3 million. The government handed out safe smoking kits at the cost of $30 million. And, golly, $569,000 was doled out for lobster pot removal.

The gigantic levels of government spending over nearly three years injected trillions into the economy. Direct payments to Americans left them with money to spend after they returned to their jobs. To the untrained eye, it appeared to be just the tonic to boost the economy.

However, the mammoth government spending of your tax dollars created the perfect economic storm.  Supplies of goods were tight. Service firms were just getting back on their feet.  Trillions of dollars were sloshing around the economy. Too many dollars were chasing too few goods.

The Federal Reserve made matters worse by artificially holding down the funds rate to near or just above zero.  That encouraged more borrowing, more stock market speculation, more consumer debt. The Fed dawdled  too long, before finally inching up interest rates in the midst of record inflation.

The Fed's so-called accommodation recklessly added to the nation's supply of money at a time when Congress was on a spending frolic.  It was a double-whammy that poured gasoline on the fires of inflation. Yet the "smart" Washington noblesse told us inflation was only "temporary."

Congress and the Fed agreed the engorged spending would help the people who needed it most. But the people suffering the most today are those at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.  They are making gut wrenching decisions about putting food on their tables and gas in their cars.  

That's why it is so disingenuous to hear Mr. Biden haranguing oil companies about inflationary prices. Biden, the Fed and Congress need to look in the mirror.  Start pointing the finger where the blame belongs.  Washington did this.  They own this crisis. Don't let them dodge accountability. 

Obama Phones: Poster Child For Government Waste

Millions of Americans are receiving free cell phones, free minutes and free texts, courtesy of taxpayers. It's easy to qualify for the government freebie.  And best of all, this is a life time deal.  All you need to do is re-qualify once a year to keep your free stuff.

The official government name of the program is Budget Mobile Lifeline Service.  However, users and the community at large know it by another moniker: the Obama Phone. It acquired this sobriquet after a viral video spread the word that the Obama administration was handing out free phones to the poor.

The program, riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, has drawn new scrutiny on Capitol Hill.  According to the most recent Congressional figures, the cost of providing those free phones was a staggering $2.2 billion in 2012.  One report claimed there were 12.5 million subscribers to the programs.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report in 2010 pegged the expenses at $802 million for the years 2005-2008.  The costs skyrocketed to $1 billion in 2009.  The number of participants had grown to 8.6 million in 2009, the GAO investigation found.

However,  statistics are hard to verify because the agency in charge of the scheme, the Federal Communications Commission, has been guilty of shoddy record-keeping.  In fact, the FCC only began to compile a subscriber database late last year.  So far, no statistics have been released.

Meanwhile, the program costs have spiraled out of control.  Just since President Obama took office, expenditures have nearly tripled from $800 million to more than $2 billion.  Obama Phones are the perfect example of how government programs start small and mushroom out of control.

Under President Reagan, the federal government decided to provide a subsidy for so-called Lifeline telephone service to the poor in 1985.  It was designed to give low income individuals the opportunity to call 911, an ambulance or for other emergency use.  It applied only to landline telephones.

To pay for the program, the federal government tacked on fees to the phone bills of most customers.  Although it is called a fee, wireline subscribers are being forced to pay what amounts to a tax for the privilege of having a telephone.

The program was expanded under President George W. Bush to include cell phone service.  The rationale was that most poor people had disconnected their landline phones and opted for wireless devices. The problem is the original intent was lost in the expansion.

Now low income people get a free cell phone, 250 free minutes of usage and 250 free texts each month.  Everyone who receives almost any type of government assistance qualifies.  That includes people who get food stamps, energy assistance, Medicaid or housing assistance, to name just a few.

Once an individual qualifies, the service is provided for 12 months. After that, recipients can re-qualify every year.  The government will even contact the user to make it easy to renew the free service annually.  However, the program is replete with fraud because of slipshod administration.

This year the Justice Department charged three men with defrauding the program of $32 million after an investigation uncovered their scheme to bilk the government to finance a well-heeled lifestyle.  It was unclear how the trio was able to pull off the elaborate con.

Last year the FCC filed two separate actions against eight firms who swindled the Obama Phone program of a total of $47.4 million.  The companies were accused of such chicanery as receiving duplicate payments for consumers who already had the free cell service from their firm.

Meanwhile, the promotion of the program continues unabated. Google "Obama Phone" and up pops a smiling picture of the president talking on a landline phone.  Underneath, the caption screams: "Get Your Free Obama Phone."

Scores of firms are peddling the phones because they collect a bounty from the government.  The FCC pays $10 to the companies for every new subscriber.  There is no incentive for these companies to verify eligibility and the FCC has failed to do an adequate job of policing the program.

Republicans have introduced legislation to pull the plug on the cell phone program.  Of course, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid will never allow a vote on such a bill.  That means the scam will continue unchecked costing Americans billions of dollars.  Only in Washington is this deemed acceptable.

Five Sure Ways To Reduce The Federal Budget

The media and the few Americans paying attention yawned earlier this year when President Obama dumped his 2015 federal budget on the legislative branch's doorstep. The $3.9 trillion fiscal blueprint was officially unveiled during a visit to an elementary school, where kids still believe in fairy tales.

The budget is little more than a child's fantasy.  Obama knows there is zero chance it will be passed by Congress ahead of the mid-term elections.  His purpose became clear when he repeated his hackneyed talking points on GOP fiscal policies that squeeze the middle class.

In his faux proposal, the president claimed his budget would reduce the federal deficit to $564 billion, a notch below the $649 deficit projected for 2014.  However, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecasted deficits would rise to $1.1 trillion annually by 2024 based on the proposed budget.  

It is meaningless to discuss the budget in further detail.  After the mid-term elections, the real budget battle will be waged.  Until then, the bulky document will languish unread in the nether land that is the Senate and House.  Budgets only make news when Democrats and Republicans squabble over cuts.

Meanwhile, American taxpayers will have to continue funding excessive government waste embedded in the budget.  It's a growing problem that politicians and bureaucrats duck to avoid exposing a system that never holds anyone accountable for incompetence, abuse and pork barrel spending.

The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual report last month on opportunities to eliminate or better manage overlap, duplication and fragmentation in the federal bureaucracy.  Not a single news organization covered the document in any detail.

In its report, the GAO found 64 opportunities to improve government efficiency across 26 areas that span a broad range of federal operations.  Tens of billions of dollars could be saved if Congress, the executive branch and the government implemented the recommendations in the report.

Yet Democrats and their allies in the media continue to complain about any attempt to shave federal spending.  They want Americans to believe that babies will go hungry, indigent families will be left homeless and schools will be shuttered if a single dime is snipped from the trillions in planned spending.   

Here are five ways to slice billions of dollars from the federal budget without harming any Americans:

• End crop subsidies paid to wealthy farmers.  The government paid $17.5 billion in taxpayers dollars to farmers last year. Eighty percent of that amount went to the wealthiest 15-20 percent of farmers.  The payout was about $14 billion to well-heeled farmers.
• Weed out Medicare fraud.  The Department of Health and Human Services estimated that in fiscal 2011 the Medicare system handed out more than $64 billion in improper payments.  The fraud ranged from overcharges for drugs to bogus insurance claims.  
• Halt the Social Security benefit leakage.  Social Security administrators like to brag that overpayments at the agency are less than half a percent of its budget.  But it's still not chump change.  The Social Security's own inspector general found overpayments were $6.5 billion in a single year. Every year as the budget grows, that number keeps climbing. 
• Stop sending food vouchers to people who do not qualify. Outright fraud accounts for about $1 billion in food stamp program waste.  However, so-called improper payments are more than $3 billion annually.  Those benefits go to ineligible households.  That's a total of $4 billion in waste and fraud.
• Reduce improper payments to individuals who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit.  The treasury lost an estimated $13.3 to $14.6 billion because of errors caused by incorrect information submitted by individuals filing returns.  An investigation revealed the improper error rate for payments was about 22 to 26 percent.  The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration uncovered the mistakes, yet the Internal Revenue Service has done nothing to stop the bleeding.  

Those five ideas, worth more than $100 billion, are just a start. Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating fraud, abuse and mismanagement, has published 557 recommendations to save taxpayers $580.6 billion in just a single year. Over five years, the changes would chop $1.8 trillion from the federal budget.

Federal government tax revenues topped $1.7 trillion at the end of April, setting a record for the first seven months of fiscal 2014.  Yet each federal budget contains higher spending levels that force more borrowing, thus fueling unending deficits.  Tax revenue isn't the problem in Washington.

Americans must demand more accountability from government and elected officials.  Spending is out of control.  More action and less talking is required to reform an fiscally obese government addicted to fattening its budget each year.  

Factiods That You Can Use

The Government Accountability Office, the single federal agency that remains independent of Obama Administration influence, released this week the results of its investigation of a $5 billion utilities program for the poor. Under the plan, the needy receive government funding to pay for heating and cooling of their homes. The agency's findings were shocking, even for a colossally inept government that has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. The agency found evidence that the feds doled out $116 million in fraudulent claims. In fact, 11,000 of the recipients were dead. Other people assumed their identities and bilked the program of $3.9 million. Another 725 recipients were in prison. About 1,100 recipients of the government largess had more income that the maximum allowable, including one wealthy Chicago woman living in a $2 million mansion. Applicants used counterfeit documents, fake addresses and bogus landlords to perpetrate their deception. Program administrations were negligent in checking applicant documentation. The GAO's investigation covered seven states that administered about one-third of the program's funding in 2009. In other words, the real fraud number is much worse. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said she was "very disturbed" by the findings. You'd think the madam secretary would have been red-faced enough to order a full investigation. No such luck. After all, the are more millions of dollars where those came from.

Factoids That You Can Use

Food stamps are a shining example of the government's ineptness at administrating a federal program. Begun in 1964, the Food Stamp program has gobbled up billions of dollars in taxpayers dollars and done nothing to stamp out hunger. The program has been fraught with fraud, theft and bloated administrative costs. In fact in 2008, the program's bad public image prompted Congress to change its name to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It may be a catchy acronym, but nothing much has changed. Last fiscal year, taxpayers shelled out a record $56 billion to serve 28 million recipients, according to the Cato Institute. That works out to $2,000 per recipient. However because of an inefficient government bureaucracy, administration costs ate up a whopping $5.5 billion that never made it to the recipients. Fraud chomped off another $1 billion. Theft and over payments cleaned out another $1 billion. Yet the federal government keeps going back to the public trough for more money. As part of the stimulus package, Congress engorged SNAP with a fresh $20 billion. Despite inserting the word "nutrition" in the program's name, it has failed miserably in that regard, too. According to federal data, obesity rates are higher for adults and children receiving SNAP assistance. This should give pause to anyone who believes the government would do a better job than the private sector of administering the nation's health care.