Shut It Down

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a cesspool of waste, fraud, and abuse for decades. However, the magnitude of this scam unveiled by President Trump is beyond the pale.

Why on Earth are American taxpayers footing the bill for a $47,000 transgender opera in Colombia? Why are we paying $2 million for sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala? How does shelling out $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam help middle-class American families that can barely afford to feed their families after years of record inflation?

These are all dumb ways to waste money, but far from the dumbest way, USAID has wasted our tax dollars lately. They funneled millions to the EcoHealth Alliance, which was involved in research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

They spent hundreds of millions of dollars on irrigation canals, farming equipment, and fertilizer in Afghanistan before Biden turned it all over to the Taliban. That's right, while American farmers can hardly afford fertilizer, USAID was busy subsidizing opium and heroin production in Afghanistan, funding the Taliban in their fight to kill US troops.

On top of all that, they bought hundreds of thousands of meals for al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria. That's right, they bought free lunches for the terrorists responsible for 9/11. You can't make this stuff up.

Not only has USAID wasted our tax dollars, but they've repeatedly refused Congressional oversight and defied the foreign policy agenda set by both Republican and Democrat presidents. They've told us our tax dollars were feeding people in need around the globe the whole time. If that isn't fraud, I don't know what is.

Enough is enough. That’s why last week I cosponsored legislation to abolish USAID. These unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats have proven time and time again that they can't be trusted with our tax dollars. It's long past time we fired every last one of them and shut it down.

Sincerely,

Sam Graves