Taking off the gloves about why we should back Elon Musk
Targeted aid for starving people is another matter completely. No, we are talking about true waste and social experiments from eggheads who think they know better than the rest of us, such as the importance of plunking down nearly $50K for a transgender opera in Colombia
By Charles W. Waring III
We believe that the nation is at a point where the fiscal conservatives are capable of making their point known to a growing coalition of citizens who are disgusted by what Elon Musk and DOGE have exposed. It will take focus and tenacity to score a victory. Watch the United States Senate and their “swampish” efforts to put Humpty Dumpty — the U.S. Agency for International Development — back together again. President Trump needs to have a long talk with Secretary Rubio.
We once counted on waging a bi-partisan fight against fraud and waste in government. Does anyone remember Sen. William Proxmire’s “Golden Sheep Awards” for government waste? Oh, he was a Democrat from Wisconsin, a state where he would not have much in common with his party today. Even 16 years ago in the first year of the Obama administration, the Environmental Protection Agency produced a document called “When Good Money Goes Bad: True Stories of Grant Fraud at EPA.”
As wise observers know, government grants at universities are a ripe source for abuse. Big grants to cities and states have long been obvious places to look, but citizens tend to give institutions of higher learning a pass. A few miscreants in ivory towers or in medical universities that purportedly “help people” think that their prestige — or superiority of perceived purpose — insulates them from prying eyes. Think about all the articles about Anthony Fauci, his massive salary and the various grants he organized; consider that others like him are hiding behind the façade of scientific good works for personal financial gain.
If you are curious about money going sideways, look for a strange fit for a grant and political influence, and you will find the place to look hard. Institutions are desperate to get federal dollars, and political figures are happy to deliver it and get credit for it. Many programs are faultless, but you can expect plenty that are not. You are right; it is a circle of corruption. One of the favorite tricks is to have a percentage of the grant funding go toward the salaries of administrators at universities, but these persons do not lift a finger to help the project along other than lend their name and reputation to the application. Again, not all government grants are evil or wasteful, but you may be sure that plenty are.
A wide variety of agencies, U.S. A.I.D. being a chief example thereof, are riddled with waste. The DOGE effort is a focus toward true waste. President Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, recently gave these examples about the waste at U.S. A.I.D.: “$1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces, $70,000 for the production of a DEI musical in Ireland, $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia, and $32,000 for a transgender comic book in Peru.” Your tax dollars were hard at work — yeah, right.
Sometimes U.S.A.I.D. does much more than embrace woke and wasteful projects. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out on Feb. 5 in its lead editorial, “the Middle East Forum says $164 million of U.S. A.I.D. money has supported radical organizations around the world, and $122 million of that aid was going to groups aligned with foreign terrorist organizations.”
Targeted aid for starving people is another matter completely. No, we are talking about true waste and social experiments from eggheads who think they know better than the rest of us, such as the importance of plunking down nearly $50K for a transgender opera in Colombia. The Democrats have chosen a most colorful hill on which to die. Moreover, the faculty lounge at Georgetown is aghast, and they damn well should be and ought to look close to home at who is at fault, but they are living behind their own red line and intend to fight like cornered animals. Mr. Musk has uncovered their purpose for being. Think about how the champions of these programs become a part of the government.
Understand exactly who is making these grants and cut them no slack and offer no excuses that they “meant well.” Remember that the wonder children of the left often go to Ivy League schools — often including internships with powerful lefty politicians in the summers — and then perhaps join the Peace Corps and then head to graduate school and then go teach a while as they network with the friends of their professors who are in powerful government positions. Wearing their politics on their sleeve, the true believers easily find help to open doors at U.S.A.I.D.; the rest go to the State Department, Capitol Hill or a nonprofit, one perhaps even funded by U.S.A.I.D. With fancy degrees and high-paying jobs, the A.I.D. gurus can test their woke social theories on which they once wrote papers and put money — your money — behind their passions. Then, comes their greatest moment of glory: boasting about how they are saving the world at the Princeton or Harvard reunion while hearing nothing but oohhs and ahhs from their classmates. This moment is akin to a good Catholic meeting the pope.
Meanwhile, the far left is telling the world that Elon Musk is some sort of monster, perhaps expecting George Soros to save them. The truth is that President Trump has duly and legally directed Mr. Musk to target waste, and he has his work cut out for him, but he is not fighting straw men. True fraud is not hard to find, and we must root it out swiftly and be prepared for a continued brutal but morally hollow backlash and sympathetic reporting from the left-wing media. Responsible Democrats would be wise to remember the example of Senator Proxmire and proudly stand against waste in government spending.
