Only now, eighteen months later, do the less idiotic members of Tangerine's cabinet begin to accept that this gutting of multinational health and humanitarian aid. . . also endangers our national security. Just as we've pointed out, right from the get-go. Slowly, the Rubio hive-mind is accepting that reality.
To be clear, this is only a small fraction of what is needed, and what was lost. But it is. . . a start. Here's the latest, from the NYT:
“. . .What may be happening here is that reality is sinking in for decision makers,” said Mark A. Green, who served as administrator of U.S.A.I.D. during President Trump’s first term and who is president of ONE, an advocacy organization for foreign assistance. “The good news is that Secretary Rubio clearly realizes that global health is what we do, and we’re really good at it. That’s why you’re starting to see more money moving.” He added, “I think there’s a realization that global health security is also American national security, too. . . .”
Eighteen months ago, the freezing of assistance was perceived internationally as a significant U.S. retreat from multilateralism. It created immediate financial crises for many aid institutions, leaving gaping holes in budgets such as that of the World Food Program (WFP), which provides emergency food aid in war and disaster zones. . . .
[Even so,] organizations working to support health programs in low-income countries are watching the closeout budget with alarm. Vincent Lin, associate director of health policy and advocacy at Partners In Health, said the fear was that the budget office was running down the clock, so that the funding allocations would expire at the end of the fiscal year in September.
Mr. Lin noted that while the budget office has not provided Congress with a breakdown of those closeout costs, many of the canceled U.S.A.I.D. awards were already closed. He said it would be hard to understand how the remaining costs could register in the billions of dollars.
“We can prevent a tremendous amount of suffering from TB, malaria, malnutrition and deaths of mothers and babies in childbirth by using these funds as Congress intended,” he said. . . .
With each renewed step -- each new step in the right direction. . . in this way, slowly, sanity might make a comeback. [Even so, it seems the close-out funds are being used by Tangernine 2.0. . . as back-door bribe opportunities. Dammit.]
नमस्ते
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