Americans can be very generous. Here in Gettysburg, our community gave $4.3 million in our local Spending Spree this year. Many of us engage in additional charitable giving at the end of each year. But we can only do so much on an individual basis. For example, it is estimated that for every meal donated to the poor by a private charity, SNAP benefits provide nine meals. That’s about 10% by private groups to 90% by government funding.
Then there is international aid. One of the worst sins of the second Trump Administration was the gutting of USAID by Executive Order shortly after Trump took office. Susie Wiles, Trump’s Chief-of-Staff, was recently quoted as saying that she was “initially aghast” at the USAID cuts, since she recognized that they do very good work. Foreign aid, although a small part of the federal budget, has a huge impact on the world. As of December 2025, a conservative estimate tracked by Boston University is that 660,000 people have died as a result of the world losing USAID funding. Two-thirds of those deaths, or 440,000 people, have been children. That’s compared to 92 million lives that were estimated to have been saved by USAID over the past two decades.
Let’s think about that. Gettysburg schools enrolled 2,800 students this year. Perhaps you have a child or grandchild in one of those schools. Every one of those children would have died not once, but 157 times over, to reach 440,000. And the dying continues every day that we fail to resume USAID funding. Is that what you voted for? The USAID money was appropriated on a bipartisan basis by our Congress, and yet Trump refused to spend it. Sadly, earlier this year the Republicans in Congress rescinded their prior appropriation of funds to USAID at Trump’s request. Nearly $500 million worth of food was left to rot as a result of Trump’s actions. Medication was destroyed. Health clinics around the world were shuttered.
At this year-end time of charitable giving, consider urging your U.S. representatives to restore USAID funding. Let’s continue to spread the spirit of our local giving to the world. So many lives depend on it.
Patricia Shoap
Gettysburg
First is important to recognize that many of the people USAID aims to help are facing genuine hardship, including poverty, hunger, and instability through no fault of their own. You can also understandably ask questions: do USAID programs advance U.S. strategic interests? Have the goals drifted from measurable national benefit? Is the money spent going to the people intended? How effectively is spending managed across layers of contractors and partner governments, is oversight strong enough to prevent waste or corruption? Does aid sometimes end up in the hands of governments or groups that are indifferent or even hostile to U.S.… Read more »