Becca Balint’s recent email attacking President Trump and Elon Musk over USAID cuts is a textbook case of fear-mongering mixed with political naivety. Her claim that defunding USAID makes Americans “less safe and secure” isn’t just misleading—it’s outright false.
USAID has been widely recognized in Washington as a dark-money operation for decades—a slush fund for political influence, backdoor funding, and unaccountable foreign entanglements. Most administrations have at least tried to reform or dismantle it, but entrenched bureaucrats and special interests have always stood in the way.
The difference this time? Trump is actually getting it done.
1. USAID is Not a Humanitarian Organization—It’s a Political Weapon
Balint paints USAID as a simple foreign aid agency that feeds the hungry and stops outbreaks. That’s a fiction.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG)—USAID’s own watchdog—has repeatedly flagged massive fraud, corruption, and funding abuses. The latest semiannual report identified $39 million in questioned costs in just six months.
USAID’s actual role? Pumping billions into politically connected NGOs, financing regime change efforts, and acting as an unaccountable foreign policy arm for the D.C. establishment. This isn’t a conspiracy theory—this is how USAID actually functions, and it’s been an open secret in Washington for decades.
Even Trump and Musk acknowledge that some USAID programs serve a real purpose—but as a whole, the agency is too corrupt and unaccountable to continue operating. The logical approach is to dismantle USAID and move any essential programs under direct oversight of the Secretary of State, ensuring real accountability.
2. Even Democrats Have Wanted to Shut Down USAID
Balint is either willfully ignorant or outright lying when she suggests that gutting USAID is some radical Trump-Musk plot. The reality is that both Democratic and Republican administrations have recognized USAID’s inefficiency and lack of accountability for decades. In 1995, the Clinton administration proposed folding USAID into the State Department, citing bureaucratic redundancy and waste. While the plan was ultimately blocked by entrenched interests, it showed that concerns about USAID’s corruption and lack of oversight have never been partisan issues.
Even Joe Biden himself played a role in reining in USAID. In 1998, he worked with Senator Jesse Helms on the bipartisan Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, which overhauled U.S. foreign aid programs and increased congressional oversight. That very law now gives Senators like Marco Rubio the authority to oversee USAID today—something Balint conveniently ignores. The difference now isn’t that USAID is suddenly under scrutiny—it’s that Trump is actually following through where past administrations failed. If Balint knew her own party’s history, she’d realize this isn’t radical—it’s long overdue.
3. The “Farmers” Argument is Dishonest and Doesn’t Apply to Vermont
Balint throws in a cheap appeal to farmers, suggesting that cutting USAID harms American agriculture. But which farmers, exactly?
If she’s talking about American farms supplying food aid, she isn’t referring to Vermont farmers. She’s talking about massive monocrop operations in the Midwest—the ones that benefit from taxpayer-subsidized grain exports through USAID contracts.
Meanwhile, USAID’s food programs often harm local farmers in developing countries by dumping U.S. grain into foreign markets, undercutting local agriculture, and creating long-term dependency. Vermont farms have nothing to do with this equation.
Either Balint doesn’t understand what she’s talking about, or she’s intentionally misrepresenting the facts.
4. Trump’s Actions Are Restoring Accountability—Not Endangering Americans
Balint claims that cutting USAID makes Americans “less safe.” That’s backward logic.
- Stopping disease outbreaks? That’s the CDC and NIH’s job—not USAID’s.
- Preventing conflict? That’s the State Department’s role, not a bloated foreign aid bureaucracy.
- Economic development? USAID’s track record shows more corruption than actual results.
USAID doesn’t make Americans safer—it makes D.C. contractors, NGOs, and foreign elites richer at the expense of U.S. taxpayers.
5. Bernie and Peter Have Turned a Blind Eye—Maybe They Should Educate Their Protégé
Vermont’s congressional delegation has ignored USAID’s dark-money operations for years. Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch know exactly what USAID is, yet they’ve done nothing to reform it.
Now, Balint is embarrassing herself parroting talking points that don’t hold up under even mild scrutiny. If Bernie and Peter won’t stand up to the corrupt D.C. machine, the least they could do is bring their newest colleague up to speed on how USAID actually works.
Instead, she’s blindly defending an agency that her own party has wanted to reform for decades.
Conclusion: Fear-Mongering Won’t Save a Broken System
Becca Balint’s email is a desperate, uninformed attempt to spin a justified policy move into a national crisis. But the facts speak for themselves—USAID has been a corrupt, unaccountable bureaucracy for decades.
Trump and Musk aren’t radical for dismantling it—they’re the first ones with the backbone to actually follow through.
If Balint were actually interested in facts, she’d acknowledge that most administrations—Republican and Democrat—have recognized USAID as a problem. The only difference now is that Trump is actually getting it done.
Her fear tactics won’t work on an informed public. The only thing this decision endangers is the corrupt status quo.
Dave Soulia | FYIVT
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