• 256 Posts
  • 64 Comments
Joined 2 months ago
Cake day: March 29th, 2025
  • dwazou@lemm.eetoNews@lemmy.world•Children die as USAID aid cuts snap a lifeline for the world’s most malnourished
    15·
    2 days ago

    USAID spent $38.1 billion in fiscal year 2023. (1)

    Sounds like a lot of money, right? Well, actually no. It’s less than 1% of the US budget. In 2024, total federal spending was $6.8 trillion. (2).

    To give you a perspective:

    Since October 7th, the United States spent $17.9 billion dollars on military aid to Israel (3). Israel is a rich country with universal healthcare (4).

    US millionaires and billionaires evade more than $150 billion a year in taxes, according to the head of the IRS. (5). Gabriel Zucman, a highly respected economist (6) came to a similar conclusion. In a recent paper, Zucman found the richest americans evade taxes on 25% of their income (7)

    According to leaked tax returns, in 2016 and 2017, Donald Trump paid $750 in taxes. And he paid no income tax at all in 10 of the last 15 years. (8) (9).

    The US is not in financial trouble because of vaccines to kids in Africa. Period.

    Elon Musk claims USAID employees are thieves/scum. He keeps accusing them of fraud on his social media X. That’s another lie.

    In 2024, the Office of the Inspector General audited USAID at the request of Congress. The 70 page audit report found no evidence of fraud.

  • dwazou@lemm.eeOPtoUnited Kingdom@feddit.uk•Guardian investigation reveals Sunak government dropped health push after lobbying by Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Unilever and MarsEnglish
    22·
    2 days ago

    Very good journalism from The Guardian.

    If I wanted to hurt the NHS, I would do everything I can to make sure people are unhealthy.

    After the guidance was dropped, the Food and Drinks Federation boasted about its lobbying success, hailing the victory in a “key wins” section of its website, the Guardian found.

    “The FDF’s engagement with Department of Health and Social Care officials … resulted in the removal of the reference to ‘minimally processed’ in the HFSS promotions guidance.”

    Imagine being paid to attack public health.

    Of course, the top executives of Unilever or Coca-Cola UK do not give a shit about this. As far as they are concerned, the only things that matters is their own compensation.