USAID: What Can $200 Buy?

How to defend USAID with your friends and families.

What can you buy with $200?

For about $200 per taxpayer¹, the U.S. government helps fight pandemics before they reach our shores, stabilizes fragile governments to prevent wars, and provides disaster relief to stop global crises from becoming our crises.

At least we did, until President Elon Musk and Donald Trump illegally shut down USAID.

This week, the Trump administration effectively shut down USAID, a program that accounts for just 0.7% of our budget yet has an outsized impact on global stability. Their reasons are baseless and preposterous. I assume they need the $43 billion USAID budget to help pay for Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk’s $5 trillion tax cut.

The impact of this shutdown is broad and immediate:

• Offices have been shuttered, and staff placed on leave.

• Foreign aid programs were frozen, creating confusion and instability.

Here is some important information to know about USAID so you can explain how reckless and dangerous this move is:

This is illegal.

Donald Trump can’t do this. This isn’t even controversial. An act of Congress created USAID; no president can reverse that. Trump and Elon Musk are directly attacking the rights of every citizen by usurping the power of Congress.

If there are concerns about corruption and waste, there are appropriate channels Trump and Musk can use to rectify. Single handily eliminating the agency is NOT one of them.

USAID Impacts The World.

Here is a short list of some of the vital programs that USAID funds worldwide.

• PEPFAR - HIV/AIDS Prevention Program in Africa

  • This program provided life-saving antiretroviral treatment to over 20 million people.

  • Since its launch, it has helped cut AIDS-related deaths in half in some areas.

  • Millions now face treatment disruptions risking the resurgence of the HIV epidemic.

• The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)

  • PMI provides mosquito nets, vaccines, and treatment to combat malaria, which has reduced the global deaths from malaria by 60% since 2000.

  • In 2023 alone, the initiative prevented over 1.5 million malaria cases in Africa.

  • With funding cut, the risk of malaria outbreak spreading globally rises.

• The Feed the Future Initiative (Global Food Security Program)

  • Helped farmers in developing countries increase crop yields, reducing food insecurity and political instability.

  • Worked with local farmers in Ethiopia to introduce drought-resistant crops, preventing famine during past climate shocks.

  • With the program gone, food insecurity will rise, increasing refugee crises and instability.

• Critical Education Programs

  • Early Grade Reading Program in Senegal - This initiative trained 3,300 student teachers in Senegal to enhance early grade reading skills.

  • Higher education scholarships in Afghanistan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Pakistan provide opportunities for students to seek higher education, contributing to the development of skilled professionals within these nations.

USAID funds critical climate initiatives and infrastructure aid impacting water and sanitation. The list goes on and on.

All for about $200 per taxpayer.

USAID Protects Americans

What’s in it for us?

Let’s be clear: USAID is not some bleeding-heart liberal charity motivated by a positive impact on the world. It is an integral part of American foreign policy, and its goal is to protect health and health and safety.

Here are ways USAID benefits Americans directly.

• National Security Risks:

  • USAID reduces the likelihood of conflicts that could necessitate U.S. military involvement by addressing the root causes of instability - such as poverty, political unrest, and resource scarcity.

  • USAID’s development programs in areas like the Middle East, for example, mitigate the conditions that extremist groups exploit for recruitment. This lowers the threat to U.S. security.

  • USAID helps strengthen alliances and foster goodwill with other nations. This enhances our influence in important regions like South America and Africa.

• Protecting Public Health:

  • USAID’s global health initiatives combat infectious diseases at their source, reducing the risk of outbreaks spreading to the U.S.

  • USAID helps strengthen health systems worldwide, which increases global capacity to detect and respond to emerging pandemics.

• Preventing Our Rivals Influence:

  • In the absence of U.S. influence, China and Russia will fill the void. This makes Americans less safe.

All for about $200 per taxpayer.

How To Talk About This.

The public perception of USAID’s budget is much larger than it is. Helping to correct that misperception is critical. Focus on how USAID is only 0.7% of the US’s total federal budget, averaging out to about $200 per taxpayer.

In short, cutting USAID saves American taxpayers nothing, makes all of us less safe, and empowers our adversaries like China.

We can also tie this to our larger narrative about Trump’s greed. The bottom line is that to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, Trump and Musk are willing to make America less safe.

1. The real number is like $275 per taxpayer.