One of my favorite days of the year! Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) issued his annual Festivus Report.
Our national debt is $36 trillion. We might add $2.1 trillion every year over the next decade.
Stop spending. Stop spending. Stop spending.
Here are a few of the worst:
The State Department bankrolls the National Endowment for Democracy, a private foundation. Why?!
Well, that private foundation and the Global Engagement Center gave $330,000 in taxpayer money to the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).
That British organization’s “disinformation index” is filled with non-leftist media outlets, making it hard for them to get advertisers and fairly compete in the market:
These lists were then handed off to Xandr, an advertising firm owned by Microsoft. Xandr and other companies took the bait and refused to place ads on websites that GDI slapped with a “risky” label, according to emails leaked to the Washington Examiner. So, taxpayers footed the bill for an attack on free speech.Among the ten “riskiest” outlets identified by GDI are The New York Post, American Spectator, Newsmax, The American Conservative, The Blaze, One America News, The Daily Wire, Reason, RealClearPolitics, and The Federalist. Their crime? Not toeing the line of a particular political narrative.Meanwhile, left-leaning outlets like The New York Times, HuffPost, NPR, and BuzzFeed, were conveniently labeled as “less risky.”
That stupid Inflation Reduction Act gave the IRS $15,000,000 to see if that evil agency could take over tax preparation.
Yes, who trusts the IRS to prepare, file, and audit your taxes?!? I’d trust Satan more. Oh, wait. Same thing. NEVER MIND:
According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, only 12% of taxpayers were eligible to use the Direct File Pilot program, which could cost up to $249 million a year. Burning $15 million to study a system that already exists in the private sector and is free to use? Sounds like classic government waste.But wait, there’s more! Not only does Direct File create an unholy amalgamation of IRS tax authority, it’s also unconstitutional! The IRA only allowed for a study, but the IRS jumped the gun, developing the system without Congressional approval.
Why do we pay $10,000,000 to operate mostly empty government buildings?
That includes $237,960 for solar-powered picnic tables:
Most federal offices are ghost towns, with 17 out of 24 agencies using only 25% or less of their space in 2023. Even the busiest offices barely reach 50% capacity. This problem predates the pandemic, but COVID-19’s telework boom made it worse. These buildings were underused even before we all learned how to unmute ourselves on Zoom.—In addition to the whopping $2 billion annual maintenance cost, the federal government is spending $5 billion on leases. This isn’t a new issue either. In a 2022 waste report, I noted the government spent $1.7 billion on 77,000 empty, unused properties.
Do not touch my gas vehicle. I love my Toyota 4Runner.
Leslie has always done a great job keeping us updated on the Energy Department’s crusade to force us to drive electric vehicles:
Despite the problems with all the vehicles and losses by the auto companies, the Biden administration gave the automakers $12,000,000 to make more electric vehicles.
The department has $3,500,000 to give “to expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for EVs and the U.S. grid.” But, um, most materials to make the batteries come from overseas!
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