Elmo claimed that “No one has died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding. No one.”

Nicholas Kristof writing in the New York Times proves otherwise.

Peter Donde, a 10-year-old infected with H.I.V. from his mother during childbirth was kept alive even as his parents died from AIDS. A program started by President George W. Bush called PEPFAR saved 26 million lives from AIDS, including Peter. In January, Trump and Musk effectively shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development, leaving orphans like Peter on his own. Without the help of the community health worker, Peter was unable to get his medicines, so he became sick and died in late February.

Achol Deng, an 8-year-old girl, died.

Two women, Martha Juan, 25, and Viola Kiden, 28, died.

An estimated 1,650,000 people could die within a year without American foreign aid for H.I.V. prevention and treatment.

Some of you may be thinking: This is very sad, but why is it our job to keep kids alive in poor countries?

There are two answers to that. The first is that U.S.A.I.D. was established to advance our national interests as well as our values, and its demolition means that the United States loses soft power and China gains. Already, China has moved to replace the United States as the most visible supporter of Cambodia, and we’ll see the same elsewhere, particularly in Africa and the South Pacific.

Moreover, stopping deaths, starvation, and the spreading of diseases like tuberculosis, pneumonia, H.I.V., malaria, and polio is inexpensive: America spends just 0.24 percent of gross national income on humanitarian aid.

But, that's all waste, fraud, and abuse in Elmo and King Donald's 'Murica first fever dream, and tax breaks for billionaires and corporations that don't actually even pay taxes now are more vital than a few million children starving, suffering and dying.

I recognize we cannot save every hungry child around the world. I agree that U.S.A.I.D. is imperfect and should be reformed. I appreciate that helping people is harder than it looks. I understand that there are difficult trade-offs in allocating tax dollars.

Yet I think most Americans would both welcome some reforms and also be proud to see how we save the lives of hungry children and sick orphans around the world by allocating just 24 cents of every $100 of national income to aid. And I find it odious when the world’s richest man cackles about America shoving programs for needy children “into the wood chipper.”

When you meet those dying children and look into their eyes and hold their hands and feel faint heartbeats flutter, you can’t bear the gleeful laughter. You see children just like your own and hang your head in shame.

Long and detailed article: nytimes.com - Foreign aid cuts impact