By Manzanita Miller
President Donald Trump’s second term kicked off with intense scrutiny on federal spending, including shining light on the shrouded United States Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID doles out American taxpayer dollars to the world to the tune of around $40 billion dollars annually, and its budget includes a slate of expenditures that are patently absurd.
Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk, recently shined light onto a bizarre sample of expenditures in a post on X. The list includes $1.5 million in American taxpayer dollars to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in Serbia, $47,000 for a transgender opera in Colombia, and $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.
While these “foreign aid” expenditures are blatant examples of waste, a majority of Americans support cutting foreign aid regardless of its intended purpose.
In the days following the exposure of USAID’s abuse of taxpayer funds, polling from Reuters found 56 percent of Americans support freezing U.S. foreign aid entirely.
A YouGov survey last week revealed that Americans are broadly concerned about foreign aid, particularly to non-friendly nations. The survey found Americans say by twenty-two points – 46 percent to 24 percent – the U.S. spends too much on foreign aid. Americans also oppose foreign aid to Afghanistan and Iraq by 40 points for each.
Polling this summer from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, found a strong preference for solving domestic issues, rather than funneling taxpayer dollars into foreign aid programs. That survey found Americans said by an eighteen-point margin – 51 percent to 33 percent – that economic aid to other nations should be cut instead of maintained at current levels.
The data is clear – Americans recognize the waste and abuse that has been allowed to fester inside the federal government, while citizens have been shouldered with the bill.
The public push back against the abuses of USAID and other entities within the federal government makes sense, just like Americans insisting on an immigration system that serves the needs of the people makes sense.
The only groups to whom it does not make sense, are those who have grown accustomed to saddling American citizens with obligations that do not serve them.
Unfortunately, this is a bipartisan issue. Within days of DOGE taking a magnifying glass to USAID’s budget, GOP lawmakers emerged from the woodwork ready to defend the agency.
GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, defended USAID, saying, “they were funding a lot of stupid stuff. That’s a fact. But they’re also doing a lot of good stuff.” Bacon continued, “so you don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
GOP Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas spoke out against slashing USAID’s budget, saying that doing so could have unintended consequences. “The problem with doing that with a life-saving agency like USAID that administers life-saving food and medications is that you’re putting on a stop-payment order that may have unintended consequences”, McCaul said.
Those defending USAID and other bureaucratic agencies of the federal government that funnel taxpayer dollars into a network of foreign projects are missing a key point.
While the United States is the greatest country in the world for opportunity, a great many American citizens are struggling to make ends meet, largely due to a corrosive economic environment. Taxpayer dollars being shipped into nonsensical programs overseas is particularly jarring when we look at the realities of those struggling in our own nation.
According to the U.S. census, 36.8 million Americans, including 11 million children under eighteen, live beneath the poverty level. Counted separately from poverty is food insecurity, a devastating issue that impacts 47 million citizens, including 14 million children.
Then there is medical debt, a mounting obstacle to financial security for millions of Americans. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 20 million Americans owe substantial medical debt. Most Americans have health insurance and dutifully pay it, but as a country Americans are still saddled with $220 billion dollars in medical debt.
Then there is the fact that nearly half of the county cannot afford to purchase a home. The National Association of Home Builders found that in 2024, 66.6 million households, or 49 percent of Americans, cannot afford to purchase a home at the median price of $250,000.
While the role of government in addressing these many issues opens up a great debate, and it should, the reality is that while bureaucrats are tossing taxpayer dollars into overseas initiatives, Americans are suffering.
The Trump Administration is continuing to expose the recklessness with which the federal government has wielded taxpayer dollars and is calling for a complete overhaul of the federal budget, and that is a good thing.
Given the fact that Americans have been battling with stagnant wages, crippling taxes, and an open border that funnels criminals and cheap foreign labor into the country, it’s unsurprising most voters want the government to focus on issues here at home.
Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
