If you listened to liberals, you would never cut any government spending, because all spending cuts cause people to die. How anyone ever survived before the modern era of behemoth government is a mystery.
The Trump administration’s pause on dispensation of USAID grants is a case in point. We know that many USAID programs were money-laundering operations for the global Left that needed to be shut down. Happily, that is being done. The administration says that legitimate aid programs that survive scrutiny will continue. I have no idea what the status of current program funding is, and this is not easy to discern from news accounts, which are often hysterical and rarely informative.
Thus, liberals are now asserting that USAID cuts have caused 300,000 people to die. U2 frontman Bono made this claim on the Joe Rogan podcast. It didn’t fare well:
He’s such a liar/idiot
Zero people have died!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 31, 2025
Elon is right, of course. What Bono and other leftists are talking about is not data, but rather a model prepared by two liberals for the purpose of attacking the Trump administration. The 300,000 number does not purport to be people who have died. Rather, it is these modelers’ estimate of the number of people who will die in coming years if all USAID funding ceases. Which isn’t going to happen. You can review the “Impact Metrics Dashboard” at the link and judge for yourself.
This is a typical instance of one of the main dynamics in modern politics. Liberals spend ever more money, largely doling it out to their friends and allies–$2 billion to a brand-new nonprofit founded by Stacey Abrams, that had never actually done anything, is a classic instance–and some of that money comes back to the Democratic Party and its politicians. This is corrupt money-laundering. But somewhere along the way, the trillions spent irresponsibly by liberals inevitably do someone some good. So, they say, any cut (or reduced increase) in government spending will have horrible consequences. Give us more money or we will shoot the puppy, as National Lampoon memorably put it.
This is nothing but emotional blackmail, and I think most voters are on to it. I would add just one substantive point. If it is really true that hundreds of thousands of people around the world are alive only on account of U.S. largesse, why is that? If it really were true that delays in USAID funding would cause 300,000 people to die, wouldn’t other governments step into the breach and supply the missing coin?
How about those Scandinavians that liberals admire so much? Wouldn’t they pony up a few billion? Also the French, British, Germans, Dutch, Belgians and Italians. And what about the Middle Eastern sheikdoms that are overflowing with cash–certainly they can be counted on to contribute? And China, whose third-world influence now exceeds ours: with all the money it is investing in Belt and Road initiatives, it would spare $20 or $30 billion to save 300,000 lives–right? And how about private philanthropists? The Bill Gates foundation is dispensing billions. If 300,000 people are really going to die because of a pause in USAID funding, surely Bill Gates will step forward and contribute a few billion to the cause. Right?
Because those claims are wholly credible. Right? And not just more bullshit politics by the Democratic Party. Right?
Don’t hold your breath.
