Senator Rand Paul has released his annual Festivus Report on wasteful government spending. The late Senator Tom Coburn started this tradition when he was in the U.S. Senate and Paul has taken up the mantle since Coburn’s retirement.
I talked about this on my podcast this morning, The American Maxim Podcast.
Here’s Rand Paul, from the introduction:
This year, I am highlighting a whopping $52,598,515,585 of waste, including a study of pigeons gambling on slot machines, giving kids junk food, and telling citizens of Vietnam not to burn their trash. No matter how much money’s already been wasted, politicians keep demanding even more.
That’s for sure. The federal government spent more in 2021 than in 2020. $52 billion in waste is not even half of it. It’s just what Rand Paul is highlighting. I mean, don’t forget, Joe Biden gave about $80 billion of military equipment to the Taliban. I mean, $52 billion, that’s chump change.
It would be literally impossible to itemize all the waste in the federal government. Some of it is obviously subjective. I would say the entire budget of the department of education is wasted money, you know. Stuff like that. We shouldn’t have a department of education. But anyway.
Here’s a list of the things that Rand Paul found wasteful.
Foreign countries use our aircraft for free for 4 years (DOD), …$773,000,000.
Why? Why would we do that? Glad you asked, from the report, quote
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) enters into Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreements (ACSA) with foreign countries, “Coalition partners,” to provide them with certain supplies and services in exchange for monetary reimbursement. As such, DoD is responsible for billing and tracking countries’ usage of these goods and services. However, DoD apparently forgot about that part.
U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Multinational Logistics and the logistics division of US Army Central never even tracked American asset usage, established rates to charge those nations, or developed an agreement with Coalition partners to allow the US to ask for reimbursement.
Great job, guys. That was just the first item on Rand Paul’s list.
The next one:
US bought Afghanistan planes that were later thrown away (DOD) $549,000,000
US-constructed buildings in Afghanistan left sitting unused (DOD) …………$2,400,000,000 (B)
Next, a $25 million COVID relief grant for NYC to display art projects across the city.
Yeah, because nothing says “fighting an airborne virus” quite like bad public art. I lived in New York City for nine years. There’s some good public art. Mostly the statues, which, you know, Leftists want to take down because they’re of men.
They did take down the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in front of the library there on Fifth Avenue. I mean, sure, he was the governor of New York and president of the United States, and all that, but he was a white man. So he has to go. But don’t worry, we’ll spend covid relief funds on public art. Oh,
OK. Modern art is terrible. You know it is. The worst, just most stupid piece of public art I ever saw was in the part right by city hall. Right where the mayor’s office is. Beautiful little park, it has gas lamps, or it still did when I lived there. And right in the middle of this park, was a giant inflatable bottle of ketchup. Like those blow-up Santa Clauses that people have in their yard. But this one was a ketchup bottle. And the name of the brand of ketchup was Big Daddy’s Ketchup. Or something. Big Daddy’s.
You know, because it was a statement about the patriarchy. A big inflatable — that is to say, actually, a deflatable — phallic symbol.
And then there was a pretentious plaque, you know, to explain, that the ketchup bottle called into question the concept of masculinity or patriarchy something stupid like that.
Uh, no. It’s a giant inflatable ketchup bottle. And if you need a plaque to explain what your piece of art is, then you suck. You’re not an artist, you’re an activist. I mean, it’s different if you have, for instance, in Madison Square Park in New York City, which is at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, there’s the statue of Admiral Farragut by St Gaudens.
That’s art.
And you don’t need a plaque to know it’s a statue of a man. You might need a plaque to tell you it’s Farragut and who Farragut was and what he did in the Civil War, but that’s history, that’s not “this oddly shaped lump of iron hanging from a rubber band is really a social commentary on the juxtaposition of the weight of capitalism on the working class.”
Something moronic like that. Well, New York City spent $25 million on public art that I am sure was just as stupid as the inflatable ketchup bottle.
And why not? If the government is going to pay you to create ugly art, then you’ll make ugly art.
That’s $25 million that was supposed to be covid relief. It’s not covid relief anyway, it was because of the lockdowns. The government says, “commerce is now illegal,” so the people who produce, who provide a service, can’t earn money. So we’re going to pay people who wouldn’t survive on their own, in a free market, we’re going to give them money instead. It’s really pretty evil when you think about it.
Next item:
Ineligible and duplicate PPP loans (SBA) $4,290,000,000.
That’s the paycheck protection plan. Again, the government outlaws commerce. And then is like, gee, lot’s of people are out of work. Yeah, no kidding. SO then there’s massive fraud. Who would have thought?
Improper CARES Act unemployment insurance payments…$36,000,000,000
Same deal.
This one really pisses me off:
Constructing border walls in the Middle East and North Africa (DOD) $250,000,000.
Yes, because walls work. But, no, we can’t have a wall on our southern border. We’ll just build them in Morocco instead. Or wherever. Tunisia, whatever. Yeah, we can spend money on border walls in other countries but not our own country.
Free trips for Korean kids to visit D.C. (USAID)… $150,000
Whaaaat?
Partnering with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United States Embassy in Seoul is allocating up to a $150,000 grant to send ten Koreans aged 15-30 to Washington, D.C. for two weeks to learn about climate change activism.
Oh, OK, as long as it’s for climate change activism.
Next, this is a really bad one.
Grinding up ferrets to develop COVID and flu vaccines $4,500,000
OK, forget about the bad public art. This is really, really despicable.
Millions of dollars are spent each year to breed animals with the intent to use them for testing. Since 2010, the American taxpayer has given Triple F Farms $4.5 million63 for the breeding and transporting of ferrets to COVID-19 and influenza vaccine testing laboratories. In 2011, an undercover investigation revealed findings, including video recordings of ferrets dying in feces, run over by carts, thrown alive into incinerators, hanging from wire. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) later confirmed these violations but only fined Triple F Farms just under $44,000, a minor slap on the wrist compared to the millions of dollars of your taxpayer funds they received before and after the investigation. So, are they still receiving money? Of course, they are. And to make matters even worse, recent inspection reports by USDA have demonstrated that abuse continues, citing excessive piles of feces, scabs on the skin,69 empty feed bags,70 and soiled enclosures.7
Testing on animals, mistreating animals, is really despicable. This reminds me of the revelations a few months ago about how Tony Fauci funds research on Beagles and tortures beagles.
Planting trees in New York City $400,000,000
Government paid for students who didn’t actually attend those schools $2,100,000
Kids crave junk food and gain weight if they’re exposed to it $352,000
Getting high schoolers excited about being airplane pilots $5,000,000
Fattening eels for human consumption (FDA)
And finally… $1,300,000 for a study that verified that hearing bad news decreases happiness levels.
OK, well, on that note, I think I’ll stop, because I don’t want to totally decrease your happiness levels.
