it's all reminiscent of the late william proxmire, democratic senator from wisconsin. there's a reason why he was the longest serving senator from the state. remember the golden fleece awards, his annual tributes to government waste? they're the stuff of political legend. one award, it went to a $50,000 study on the sex life of screwworms. you couldn't make it up. another in 1975, proxmire gave a golden fleece award to the federal aviation administration for spending $57,800. that's 289,209. inflation adjusted to study the measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, including the distance from knee to knee while sitting and measuring the length of the buttocks. well, usaid, politically speaking, is all that and more. here are some examples from the white house website under the heading at usaid waste, fraud and abuse. promote lgbtq inclusion in serbia, $70,000 for a di musical in ireland, 2.5 million for electric vehicles in vietnam, $47,000 for a transgender opera in colombia, 32,000 for a transgender comic book in peru. but is it all so black and white? consider bert a

but william proxmire. william proxmire was the senator from wisconsin.hink he was the longest serving senator from wisconsin. his career was largely predicated on the announcement of the golden fleece award, which was always some ridiculous expenditure of federal funds that would be head scratching. and people would say, well, thank goodness senator proxmire is out there exposing all of this waste, fraud and abuse. it's a winning issue for republicans. i say. >> michael, what do you make of the argument? and this is this is something, you know, i actually focused on a lot as i was in school during the iraq war. that was kind of unfolding, as, you know, my political consciousness was being formed. um, the idea that the way that we communicate with people overseas, america's image abroad, it's kind of the idea being able to to try to talk to people about the idea of america being something to aspire to, and that being an important piece of i mean, the usaid is a piece of cold war infrastructure. it's not necessarily it is not neutral in terms of our our na

it's easy to go through any budget, including including the usaid budget, and find what william proxmired to call. if you remember, joe, the golden fleece award type things or the pentagon budget, you have the $800 screwdriver. so, sure, like the white house spokesperson did the other day, you can find two or 3 or 4 things in the aid budget that should not have been funded. but let's not kid ourselves. most of what they're doing is good. most of what they're doing saves lives, and most of what they're doing is not just good for them, it's good for us. in the way of influence, pushing back china, strengthening these, these countries. so talk about something that's penny wise and pound foolish. if these people were serious about approving our aid policy, they'd let it go. and they would they would reform but not shut down. they would improve but not destroy. and this is really shortsighted and dangerous. >> yeah. to that point, richard, the white house put out a memo yesterday itemizing some of those things, like $32,000 for a transgender comic book in peru as justification for shuttering