re: USAID related: the real question is - are we getting our money back from these thieves?

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We are OWED back way more than what these thieves stole as individuals. We're owed all of it back in the form of massive refunds.

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20k tax credit to be used over 5 years. Meaning your tax bill is 25k then you apply the 20k credit you pay only 5k. Or if tax bill is 10k you can apply the credit and pay nothing and carry over the 10k balance credit for next year.

Also, tax amnesty(no penalty or no interest and penalty) to flood the fed govt with cash and get people right.

Also an option to pay a flat tax for self employed; first 25% is exempted and then pay flat 10% on the rest. For instance you are 1099 for a $100k you pay a 10% flat tax on the 75k = $7,500 tax bill.

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USAID related: the real question is - are we getting our money back from these thieves?

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Not directly, no. IF the President can enact the cuts to what DOGE is exposing, those marginal funds should first go to paying down the debt. Throwing all that cash back to taxpayers would feel great but it would light inflation up like a bonfire. Using it to pay down the debt would, effectively, give everyone a raise as the value of the USD climbed.

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And are they going to prison?

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The key is here will be how broadly or narrowly the courts will define misappropriation in any possible cases. In all honesty, I would expect very few to be even attempted (much less succeed). Remember, opening this can of worms would mean that not only the bureaucratic functionaries would be up for grabs, but the power players pushing the money around (and those players are likely friends/relatives of federal judges).

In that vein, a lot of the money we've seen being pushed around thus far goes through multiple hands before getting to power-players. This creates a firewall of sorts as it's literally impossible to determine which specific dollars going to some NGO were sent to some other group with the specific idea of paying off a specific person or people (see: Bill Kristol).

NGO A gets $100M from various sources, with $20M of that coming from the feds. Group B gets $30M in funding from various sources, including $5M from NGO A, but none directly from the Feds. Charity C is run by Congressman Bedfellow's wife and usually gets donations of around $45M per year, it gets $2.5M of that from Group B and pays Mrs. Bedfellow a salary of $250k/yr for "consulting", being COO, or something similar. While there is a trail there, it's not nearly conclusive enough to pass muster in a court (and that's how we have to look at it, if we are talking likelihood of results rather than just what we think should happen). One would need to completely cut funding to any groups who have any funding ties with A, B and C, then wait to see how much of C's annual funding dried up just to begin to concretely prove such a tie.

All that said, trying to build a case like this is going to take a frickton of time. We're talking years, not weeks nor even months. Quality can't be rushed so if you are really wanting to see some justice doled out, you're just going to have to hope, pray and wait.

lol, you think you guys are getting money back? Trump has cut one of the only agencies that actually gives money back to consumers. My naive children.

I’m willing to bet that most of the money will have been “legally” channeled and prosecution will be impossible. For now, I’m content that it’s being discovered and shut down. Next, I hope guardrails are permanently put in place to prevent it happening again.

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Tracking the money and exposing how it got to where will help a lot. Right now, it's invisible.

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Yep. One step at a time. Right now we're still in the information-gathering phase and there's so damned much to gather that even that is going to take a while.