it would be funny if we funded puppet governments like we do public goods like childcare assistance programs, nutrition assistance , social workers in public achools, etc. like instead of giving any money to either, the feds create a block grant program and all our little client states have to submit a proposal with budget and timeline of deliverables to compete for those funds.

a committee decides what groups receive funds that are only released quarterly contingent as reports are submitted and reviewed. and everything is always hanging by a thread, so much effort is spent looking for new grants and submitting glowing reports, instead of.. you know.. doing the thing.