Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) teased his annual list of gripes against government spending on the eve of Festivus.
Congress is fresh from passing a continuing resolution to fund the government through March 14. At the time of the vote late Friday, the government was hours away from a shutdown. Paul voted against the resolution, abiding by his adherence to less government spending.
TRUMP LOOKS TO LAWSUITS AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO MUZZLE ‘FAKE NEWS’
“Tomorrow, we’ll be celebrating Festivus — you know, the made-up Seinfeld holiday, but in that we will be talking about a lot of the waste. For example, $760 million spent at the NIH on diversity, equity, and inclusion. I thought they were studying science over there. Nope, it’s about race. That’s crazy,” Paul said. “Six hundred thousand dollars to discuss why there are microaggressions among obese Latinx. What does that even mean? Even Latin American people think Latinx is a stupid term.”
Every year on Festivus, which this year falls on Monday Dec. 23, Paul issues his list of what he finds to be wasteful government spending. The holiday comes from the sitcom Seinfeld season 9 episode 10 when a character created the holiday ahead of Christmas for “the airing of grievances.”
“This is insanity,” Paul said. “This is why we can’t rest until we cut spending, and we can’t just raise the debt ceiling without cutting spending.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The House attempted to pass a larger bill on Thursday, which failed. Its second attempt did not include a debt limit provision, which was opposed by President-elect Donald Trump and volunteer head of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk.
Paul was one of 11 senators who voted against the spending bill. All Democratic senators voted for the bill.