USAID Cuts Will Lead to Millions of Preventable Deaths

Photograph Source: Airman 1st Class Nicholas Byers – Public Domain

Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will lead to millions of preventable deaths. The decision of the richest person in the world to destroy an agency that delivers life-saving aid to the poorest people on the planet is unconscionable.

According to internal USAID memos, the cuts to foreign aid will mean, every single year:

+ Two to three million additional deaths from lack of vaccinations;

+ 166,000 more deaths from malaria;

+ 28,000 new cases of highly-infectious diseases, including Ebola and Marburg virus; and

+ 200,000 more children paralyzed from polio.

Separately, independent researchers estimate that the illegal freeze on global AIDS funding has already taken nearly 19,000 lives, and that the toll will increase as the funding freeze continues.

These actions are not just immoral, they are unconstitutional.

Congress created USAID as an independent agency – it cannot be unilaterally eliminated by the president based on the whim of an unelected billionaire. The Constitution explicitly gives Congress the power of the purse.

Make no mistake: These cuts will not only lead to millions of unnecessary deaths throughout the world, they are an attack on our democracy and the checks and balances our Founding Fathers established more than 230 years ago. Further, it will weaken our national security and our standing in the global community. When we abandon desperate people in some of the poorest countries in the world, we can be sure that geo-political adversaries will fill the void.