Sen. Rand Paul’s Annual Festivus Report on Government Waste Tops $900B for 2023
“United States Agency for International Development spent $6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and the Small Business Administration gave ‘struggling’ music artists like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne over $200 million.”
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) releases an annual report on government waste, and last year’s was plenty infuriating with its $482 billion. This year’s involves a jaw-dropping $900 billion going to things like studying Russian cats on a treadmill and our government promoting tourism in Egypt among other ludicrous examples of utter waste.
The 2023 #Festivus Waste Report is officially out! This year we found $900,000,000,000 worth of waste to air some serious grievances over. https://t.co/LyJSnwxVaa
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 22, 2023
Barbie’s Dream World has nothing on the fiscal nightmare surrounding COVID-19 spending. Fraudsters uploaded Barbie and doll-like images as proof of ID, and the government actually believed it! pic.twitter.com/ZkU4PvBV5m
— HSGAC GOP (@HSGAC_GOP) December 22, 2023
Is the state of Egypt’s tourism industry keeping you up at night? Well, don’t worry if it is, @USAID sent $6 million to encourage tourists to visit Egypt. pic.twitter.com/bi4O6LeaiL
— HSGAC GOP (@HSGAC_GOP) December 22, 2023
The national debt is currently nearing $34 trillion, causing financial issues at home for families nationwide. As 2024 nears, Ranking Member Paul will continue to fight the big spenders in both parties and end government waste once and for all. But for now, Happy #Festivus!
— HSGAC GOP (@HSGAC_GOP) December 22, 2023
Paul’s government site announcement includes both a link to the full pdf report (here) and the following:
Some of the highlights include the National Institutes of Health spending a portion of a $2.7 million grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill and Barbies used as proof of ID for receiving COVID Paycheck Protection Program funds. The Department of Defense ruined over $169 million worth of military equipment by leaving it outside, the United States Agency for International Development spent $6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and the Small Business Administration gave ‘struggling’ music artists like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne over $200 million.
Be sure to download & save this year's #Festivus report. It will blow your mind. https://t.co/zokp8iIVoo pic.twitter.com/Cpmis26f6n
— Glass Half Full 🇺🇸 (@GFull225) December 22, 2023
$3.5 million to study if Japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine.
You can’t make this up.
— Jes (@galexy70) December 22, 2023
The Russian cat study was part of a $2.4 million NIH grant sent to a researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology who gave a subgrant to researchers in St. Petersburg, Russia to study forward and backwards stepping by cats, according to Sen. Paul’s report. (RELATED: Rand Paul Performed Heimlich On Iowa Senator Joni Ernst)
Another notable NIH grant in the report is $33.2 million for a program to support a monkey colony where 3,000 monkeys are taken care of before being shipped to research facilities across the country.
. . . . The “festivus” report also shines light on a series of “disinformation” novels created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the DHS component responsible for working with third-party groups to pressure social media platforms into censoring speech online.
CISA developed a series of graphic novels, the “Resilience Series,” beginning with a novel called “Real Fake,” a book about a foreign intelligence operation to spread “disinformation” concerning a senator in order to influence an election.
Another major source of government waste identified in the “festivus” report is a $400 million political campaign war chest held by the IRS that no major political candidate has used. The account is funded by a $3 option on personal tax returns designated for presidential campaign funding.
Your tax dollars at work.
Happy Festivus.
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Comments
Apparently, this list doesn’t include the $75 billion to hire this year’s highest paid actor, Volodymyr Zelenskyyyyyyy.
Thank you, Ms. Slippers and Sen. Paul!
Freaking too low
It’s trillions Ron!
It’s disgusting that we are STILL doing horrible medical experiments on there intelligent animals monkeys, beagles,
More
Yeah Fauci, let’s put your f-king head in a glass jar and see how long it takes for the insects to eat your fucking face off
I really thought that would be the end of him… so far, barley made a dent
Beagles are chosen because they are so sweet and as a rule don’t make trouble
Again, f.u.c.k.e.r…
I joined a beagle rescue organization.. the stories…
And the Chinese love them some golden retrievers, which are raised mainly in places like Ukraine
What a world…
By the way, just rewatched True Detective first season, great show, maybe one , if not the best one season series.. focused on primarily children being terribly abused and murdered, some women, mainly kids, down in the byou…
Of course, was Louisiana based and had anti religious / charter school degradation weaved into it, let’s not forget generational deviants
However, I thought, this shit is everywhere, it’s Pizzagate, the freaking WH, the mutilation of our children by our medical community
I’m sorry, it’s surely been here for like forever, but once the Sc ruled in favor of gay marriage, it’s been a freak show.
I don’t think the gay community wanted this or planned for it but the queer community certainly did….
I want the sanity and feeling of safety of my community back
Went to wallyworld today. It was packed with illegals, I mean packed. Hundreds of families with 5 kids in the cart and entire extended family hanging on. Also, new, many isles wer literally locked up. You had to buy those items there after the gates were opened for you
I live outside Austin, Tx
So Muslims effectively caused us to be sexually abused in front of everyone.
Black gangs, Latino gangs have now caused our shopping to be a horrible experience. Not saying white people don’t steal, but come on, I’ve got 2 eyes.
Just insane
Never going back to Walmart, they can have it
“Yeah Fauci, let’s put your f-king head in a glass jar and see how long it takes for the insects to eat your fucking face off”
It really says something that PETA and all those vegan outfits had nothing to say about this one. Doing puppy torture in Africa because it is banned here should have been the end of Fauci but ideology wins out, I guess.
“$3.5 million to study if Japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine.”
Why don’t they just skip the baby steps and experiment directly on the expat zoo pandas, which is where we all know the real libido problem is.
Strong case for a Line Item Veto and a strong willed executive.
Is the state of Egypt’s tourism industry keeping you up at night? Well, don’t worry if it is, @USAID sent $6 million to encourage tourists to visit Egypt.
The US government doled out over $200M of pandemic relief that helped famous musicians such as Post Malone, Lil Wayne, and Nickelback, report says. How COVID aid has potentially been wasted
Isn’t NIckelback Canadian?
Yes and I don’t know but they did
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-12418109/How-mega-rich-musicians-including-Post-Malone-Chris-Brown-LeAnn-Rimes-Nickelback-bagged-10M-Covid-emergency-grants-didnt-pay-back.html
I’ll go out on a limb and defend the cat/treadmill thing. Studying the musculature and skeletal movements of a cat back and forth can help in the design of robotic dogs for military use. Or the massacre of your political enemies. Maybe
There are other ways to get the same result that don’t include a using animals
It was Russian researchers conducting research on Russian cats in Russia. They can pay for their own cat on treadmill studies.
They are too smart to spend such money on nonsense.
Into whose pockets did the money actually land?
Very easy to waste taxpayer dollars. Tinkering around the edges isn’t gonna to fix it. Entire govt departments need to be shut down and their legitimate functions (if any) consolidated. Congress and the Executive will have to work together to make any lasting change and that may not be likely. While it is still possible to reform before we go past the point of no return on the debt and spending, IMO we are very close to the end of the road where the Nation has, collectively, chosen to kick that can.
Yes, “trimming” government programs is like “pruning” weeds. They’ll just come back stronger. If you want to get rid of a weed you need to pull it up by the roots.
It’s senseless to tell the government it can continue to fund un-Constitutional activities, just don’t waste so much money doing it. You need to eliminate entire programs, roots and all.
When “the edges” are nearing a trillion dollars a year, I think we can do some “tinkering.” Though I agree that whole agencies and departments need to be gutted, abolished, and/or folded into one SMALLER agency.
But…but…this would all be fine if we just “paid our fair share”, no?
I recall back in the 60’s when Wisconsin Senator Proxmire, a Democrat of the old school, used to post his own annual list of boondoggles and obvious fraud. I can be a witness his efforts went unheeded. Hope Sen. Paul has a greater impact, but I doubt it.