One of the first casualties of the second Trump administration is the United States International Development Agency (USAID).
The institutions that fund and operate humanitarian aid programs around the world are quickly becoming targets of Republicans. Over the past four weeks, the White House has pursued plans to reduce the USAID workforce from over 10,000 people to around 290. So far, efforts have been made in Washington, DC, that were covered in black institutional signs. Tape or permanently deleted.
There are many reasons why the Trump administration, and Elon Musk's so-called Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are particularly keen on USAID. Before dismantling other government agencies, it could be part of their efforts to dramatically reduce federal spending by using USAID as a test run. Or maybe Trump and his allies see foreign aid as little worth. But if this really saves taxpayers money, as they argue, it doesn't make much sense. Last year, USAID spent less than 1% of its federal budget.
But the Trump administration's attack on USAID teaches us a broader view of Republicans' views on government spending, especially what they might think. It's useless Expense: A program to help the poor. And by classifying the way they justified the dismantling of USAID – as capable of withstanding fraud and mismanagement, we can get a glimpse into how they approach welfare programs in the country.
A statement from the White House earlier this month revealed that USAID clearly lamented that “taxpayers can't explain it to them.
It has nothing to do with the billions of dollars spent by USAID supporting life-saving food distribution and STD prevention programs. And it doesn't matter that USAID's hunger warning system will help organizations around the world decide where to deploy humanitarian relief. What's important to Trump and his allies is the story that supports their claim that basic humanitarian programs are full of waste and abuse.
Effective shutting down USAID will have great consequences for millions of people overseas. It should also serve as a warning for people who are concerned about anti-disability programs at home. If programs like Food Stamps and Medicaid are on the chopping block, Republicans could rely on the same argument. These programs are useless, but why do we need to fund them?
Today's USAID. Medicaid tomorrow?
Throughout the presidential election, Trump has promised not to cut programs like Medicare or Medicaid, but the red flag was hard to overlook. “There's a lot we can do from a qualification perspective, from a reduction perspective, and also in regards to qualification theft and bad management,” he told CNBC last March.
And that's exactly how Trump and his allies are now framing their potential attacks on Medicaid. (Unlike USAID, Medicaid is almost 10% of the federal budget, making it a more attractive target for the Trump administration if they are trying to cut spending significantly.) He recently wrote that Medicaid has been “love” He told reporters that he would cherish it. However, he added a warning saying, “We're not going to do anything with it.” “Unless you find abuse or waste,” he said.
Sure enough, when Trump appointed Dr. Mehmet Oz to serve as administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), he said that Oz “reduces waste and fraud at our country's most expensive government agencies. I will.” And earlier this month, Musk's Doge Aides began working at CMS. At CMS, they gained access to a critical payment and contract system, according to the Wall Street Journal. Doge Aides is tasked with finding scams.
Certainly, Medicaid and Medicare, like government programs, are by no means perfect and experience fraud and mismanagement. But the Trump administration has exaggerated how much money they can save by tackling fraud with these programs. “At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of federal qualifications (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc.) fraud will exceed the total of all private frauds we have heard so far. . “Mask tweeted last week. “It's not nearby either.”
But unless the mask knows what we don't do and share it, that claim is not rooted in reality. One of the governments often cite when assessing the efficiency of these programs is “inappropriate payment rates.” This represents payments that do not meet the CMS requirements for a variety of reasons, including shortages of documentation, overpayments, or underpayments. In 2024, Medicaid's inappropriate payment rate was around 5%. CMS reports that some of them could be the result of fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, but most of them are inadequately documented results.
The problem is that if Republicans are really interested in wasted spending, they strive to limit access to welfare by imposing measures such as work requirements that have proven ineffective. That means not to concentrate. When Georgia imposes work requirements on Medicaid, its management costs, for example, are escalating, and the majority of Medicaid spending is heading towards implementing work reporting requirements.
Republican efforts to reduce Medicaid and other welfare programs were never about stopping fraud or abuse. They are constantly about reducing the social safety net, partly helping fund tax cuts for those who don't need them. And it is clear that the plan to cut around $2 trillion in government spending on masks will reveal a path far away to pass eligibility cuts. Like the attack on USAID, Republicans will say they are simply targeting fraud and abuse, but their definition of wasteful spending has little to do with actual waste and corruption, and are poor. It would have to do with money going to help people.
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