Over the years, the United States has built a reputation as a country that gives generously to others. In 2024, the top four categories of foreign assistance, according to ForeignAssistance.gov, were: peace and security, $13.02 billion; humanitarian assistance, $11.58 billion; economic development, $10.36 billion; and health, $10.33 billion — totaling $45.29 billion. Of this, the U.S. Agency for International Development managed $18.36 billion in funds to make the world a safer and healthier place.
This letter started off well but devolved into mush at the end.
Yes, the US is no longer the world's piggy bank, doling out money to friend and foe alike. And the simple reason is we no longer have all this extra money to give away. Maybe it worked to stabilize the world back when we were the only real superpower, but now there are two and that changes everything.
We can't run a perpetual deficit and watch our debt grow sky-high. We won't survive the coming competition if our economy is not running on all cylinders.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) doesn't allow freedom, they don't have oil resources, and they don't have innovation. What they do have is "slave labor," or the ability to force the population to work their tail off while the CCP gets to direct the profits as it sees fit. This means a huge military buildup, the "belt and road" initiative to buy influence around the world, and the threat to take the free country of Taiwan. If you are a Leftist and you don't like what Russia did to Ukraine, Taiwan will be worse.
We can continue to pretend that money grows on trees, that our Southern border was secure, that biological boys can compete with girls and use their private spaces, that the laptop was Russian disinformation, and that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack; or we can change our trajectory to make it more likely that the US will survive the coming challenges rather than give up without a fight.
It turns out that the CCP's biggest weakness is economic. Their plan was to flood our markets with cheap goods, made by what is effectively slave labor, hollow out our manufacturing base, and constrict the US in the world until we no longer posed a direct challenge to their rule. And rule is what their goal is, make no mistake.
Classic economics is against tariffs, but it does not consider an evil player using slave labor to gain a long-term advantage. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that allowing China into the WTO with preferred status, in order to allow them to modernize and bring benefits to their vast population, was a bad mistake. Our leaders had rose-colored glasses and did not see the potential downside. Now that we do, we must take steps to level the playing field and then, perhaps, our free-market capitalist society will continue to outperform, out think, and out maneuver the CCP. Hopefully it isn't too late.
Those friends who would prefer to allow China to overtake the world do not have to pay our tariffs. They can trade with the CCP instead. But everyone was enjoying the largesse of the US and it is always hard to turn off the free-money spigot and say the party is over. Recipients do not like that.
Once again you prove you have no understanding of what you speak of G. The US has not been gallantly handing out money all these years, we've been buying influence. You're so twisted up trying to support Trump you can't see that even in your own note you point out that it's the way to get support, as you point out that China is doing the very same thing with its belts and roads initiative. In most cases, the benefits to our country have outweighed the costs. For instance, by supporting Western Europe's defense through NATO, we help ensure our safety, and that land wars are not fought on our home ground. The research and medical funding we do helps make it less likely that deadly diseases spread from other continents to ours. None of this is charity, it's in our best interests. Conversely, cutting all these things allows China to buy the influence instead, and when we need something we won't be able to get it. Make no mistake, we will need something, and if we don't get our alliances repaired and funding restored around the world we'll be cut off. Trump is a transactional idiot, and cannot understand complexities like that, and his buffoonish ego can't seem to comprehend that even the best and strongest country in the world needs friends around the world at times. Unfortunately, it will be the rest of us that pay the price, as Americans will die due to his policies, as will many people around the world.
Sometimes, handing out money willy-nilly has unintended consequences. Think of our "gain of function" research at the Wuhan Institute, which caused a worldwide pandemic. This funding was illegally hidden from Congress despite a ban on the research by the federal government.
When we are spending our children's and grandchildren's fortunes, we should not get into a "bidding war" with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). And we don't need to. The choice for democracies is clear: support the US and the West, or go play with the Chinese and let them surreptitiously take over. That the CCP are bad actors is becoming well known and this should not be a close competition.
Trump can reset our trade relations to a more equal footing and we can prosper without having to "buy friends" through foreign aid. Because of the upcoming challenges by the CCP and our national debt and deficit, those days are over.
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(3) comments
This letter started off well but devolved into mush at the end.
Yes, the US is no longer the world's piggy bank, doling out money to friend and foe alike. And the simple reason is we no longer have all this extra money to give away. Maybe it worked to stabilize the world back when we were the only real superpower, but now there are two and that changes everything.
We can't run a perpetual deficit and watch our debt grow sky-high. We won't survive the coming competition if our economy is not running on all cylinders.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) doesn't allow freedom, they don't have oil resources, and they don't have innovation. What they do have is "slave labor," or the ability to force the population to work their tail off while the CCP gets to direct the profits as it sees fit. This means a huge military buildup, the "belt and road" initiative to buy influence around the world, and the threat to take the free country of Taiwan. If you are a Leftist and you don't like what Russia did to Ukraine, Taiwan will be worse.
We can continue to pretend that money grows on trees, that our Southern border was secure, that biological boys can compete with girls and use their private spaces, that the laptop was Russian disinformation, and that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack; or we can change our trajectory to make it more likely that the US will survive the coming challenges rather than give up without a fight.
It turns out that the CCP's biggest weakness is economic. Their plan was to flood our markets with cheap goods, made by what is effectively slave labor, hollow out our manufacturing base, and constrict the US in the world until we no longer posed a direct challenge to their rule. And rule is what their goal is, make no mistake.
Classic economics is against tariffs, but it does not consider an evil player using slave labor to gain a long-term advantage. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that allowing China into the WTO with preferred status, in order to allow them to modernize and bring benefits to their vast population, was a bad mistake. Our leaders had rose-colored glasses and did not see the potential downside. Now that we do, we must take steps to level the playing field and then, perhaps, our free-market capitalist society will continue to outperform, out think, and out maneuver the CCP. Hopefully it isn't too late.
Those friends who would prefer to allow China to overtake the world do not have to pay our tariffs. They can trade with the CCP instead. But everyone was enjoying the largesse of the US and it is always hard to turn off the free-money spigot and say the party is over. Recipients do not like that.
Once again you prove you have no understanding of what you speak of G. The US has not been gallantly handing out money all these years, we've been buying influence. You're so twisted up trying to support Trump you can't see that even in your own note you point out that it's the way to get support, as you point out that China is doing the very same thing with its belts and roads initiative. In most cases, the benefits to our country have outweighed the costs. For instance, by supporting Western Europe's defense through NATO, we help ensure our safety, and that land wars are not fought on our home ground. The research and medical funding we do helps make it less likely that deadly diseases spread from other continents to ours. None of this is charity, it's in our best interests. Conversely, cutting all these things allows China to buy the influence instead, and when we need something we won't be able to get it. Make no mistake, we will need something, and if we don't get our alliances repaired and funding restored around the world we'll be cut off. Trump is a transactional idiot, and cannot understand complexities like that, and his buffoonish ego can't seem to comprehend that even the best and strongest country in the world needs friends around the world at times. Unfortunately, it will be the rest of us that pay the price, as Americans will die due to his policies, as will many people around the world.
Sometimes, handing out money willy-nilly has unintended consequences. Think of our "gain of function" research at the Wuhan Institute, which caused a worldwide pandemic. This funding was illegally hidden from Congress despite a ban on the research by the federal government.
When we are spending our children's and grandchildren's fortunes, we should not get into a "bidding war" with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). And we don't need to. The choice for democracies is clear: support the US and the West, or go play with the Chinese and let them surreptitiously take over. That the CCP are bad actors is becoming well known and this should not be a close competition.
Trump can reset our trade relations to a more equal footing and we can prosper without having to "buy friends" through foreign aid. Because of the upcoming challenges by the CCP and our national debt and deficit, those days are over.
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.