Rand Paul’s ‘Festivus Report’ highlights the country’s wasteful, reckless spending
Christopher Tremoglie
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Did you know the U.S. spent nearly $119,000 researching if Thanos could snap his fingers wearing the infinity gauntlet? How about spending $31.5 million of COVID relief funds on luxury cars? These were just some of the projects on which our country wasted millions of dollars, and taxpayers sat idly by and didn’t hold politicians accountable.
‘Tis the season for the release of fiscal hawk Sen. Rand Paul’s annual “Festivus Report,” highlighting the billions of dollars of taxpayer money our country wastes each year. Keeping up with tradition, Paul’s 2022 report again tallied the cost of such projects and arrived at an eye-popping total of $482,276,543,907. With a national debt of over $31 trillion, this amount of wasteful spending should be unacceptable. Yet, our country’s politicians ignore it and keep repeating their disastrous mistakes.
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There needs to be more accountability now regarding financial responsibility in the country. Politicians spend as if money grows off trees and keep plunging the country further and further into debt. Here are just some of the projects our government wasted taxpayer money on.
Animals were particularly costly for the government, and a lot of resources were devoted to them. For example, $2.3 million was spent on injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, according to the report. Another project that analyzed hamsters on steroids fighting cost $3 million. Other initiatives included a study that cost $187,500 to ensure that children love their pets and $689,222 to analyze the romantic rituals of parrots.
Another $1.1 million was spent on training mice to binge drink alcohol. Additionally, mice were also used to, somehow, study racial aggression. This program cost $519,828 — no word if the mice were drunk at the time.
The government spent $2.1 million in U.S. taxpayer money to encourage Ethiopians to wear shoes. Another $50 million was used to promote tourism in Tunisia. This was especially alarming considering that Tunisia is already a well-known destination that generates over $1 billion annually from tourism. But this was nothing compared to the $210 million used on “Basic education” programs in Jordan.
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Illegal immigrants were quite the burden for taxpayers in 2022. The government spent $168 million on helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation, while another $17 million was spent on unused hotel rooms.
Our country was founded on an aversion to unfair taxes. Yet, today, taxation and wasteful spending are barely acknowledged. We’ve gone from “no taxation without representation” to minimal objections to reckless spending. Millions, if not billions, are being wasted on programs that do nothing to help Americans, and hardly anyone seems to mind. Citizens must start demanding more fiscal responsibility from our elected leaders.