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Rand Paul's 'Festivus Report' exposes
$900B in government squander

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Posted By: Moritz55, 12/22/2023 11:45:32 AM

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released his annual Christmas "Festivus" report Friday for the ninth year in a row, outlining $900 billion in government waste. Among notable instances, the National Institutes of Health allocated funds to study Russian cats on treadmills, photos of Barbies were utilized as identification to obtain COVID relief funds, the Department of Defense lost $169 million of outdoor-stored military gear, $6 million went towards tourism in Egypt by the United States Agency for International Development, and the Small Business Administration provided over $200 million to "struggling" music artists such as Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne.

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Reply 1 - Posted by: marlon 12/22/2023 12:05:41 PM (No. 1622319)
Back in the 80s I read a book Government Waste from A to Z. At the time the total budget was 1 Trillion and the author offered up solid reasoning that five hundred billion could be cut with virtually no impact. Now we toss around trillions like it is air.
30 people like this.

Reply 2 - Posted by: wilarrbie 12/22/2023 12:17:57 PM (No. 1622323)
I would like to see multiple panels of citizen taxpayer oversight on ALL such government spending. It's easy for pols to fling our dollars around while lobbied aides craft their bills without a care in the world where the money comes from. Explain it to the people who have to work to generate that money. I'm sure we value the outcomes of spending DIFFERENTLY.
29 people like this.

Reply 3 - Posted by: Venturer 12/22/2023 1:01:16 PM (No. 1622339)
$$$900 Million dollars, and that's just the tip of the iceberg, not even enough to scrape the hull on the Titanic
7 people like this.

Reply 4 - Posted by: Nimby 12/22/2023 1:07:29 PM (No. 1622344)
Don't forget the billions being funneled to all the government agencies in the name of "science research"
17 people like this.

Reply 5 - Posted by: red1066 12/22/2023 1:09:13 PM (No. 1622348)
Only 900 billion? I thought it would be trillions.
9 people like this.

Reply 6 - Posted by: watashiyo 12/22/2023 4:53:24 PM (No. 1622453)
Indeed, government IS the problem!
17 people like this.

Reply 7 - Posted by: snakeoil 12/22/2023 5:25:18 PM (No. 1622468)
These sorts of stories made me livid. Each year I spends hours filling out tax returns so I won't have to go to the pokey. The amount of money I pay is miniscule compared to these projects. But since my name isn't Biden I have to pay. Or else.
16 people like this.

Reply 8 - Posted by: mifla 12/23/2023 5:50:07 AM (No. 1622719)
Made worse by the fact that Government Department Heads, when asked where all the money went, simply say "We don't know." and walk away with no consequences.
12 people like this.

Reply 9 - Posted by: Strike3 12/23/2023 7:08:34 AM (No. 1622755)
You don't fall $35 trillion into a rathole because you create a smart budget and stick to it. The government as a business would have been bankrupt years ago. The really depressing part about spending hours on your taxes and writing out that big check is that, for most of us, it doesn't even cover AOC's salary.
10 people like this.

Reply 10 - Posted by: Zigrid 12/23/2023 10:31:41 AM (No. 1622939)
God bless Rand Paul...he's a treasure...he should be republican leader in the senate...BTW...where the hell is McConnell these days....hiding in his basement...like biden?
13 people like this.

Reply 11 - Posted by: zoidberg 12/23/2023 1:42:13 PM (No. 1623071)
It's good that Rand Paul calls attention to this. But nothing will happen. Nobody will face any consequences.
1 person likes this.

Reply 12 - Posted by: The Remnants 12/23/2023 5:51:35 PM (No. 1623169)
YIPES, 900 BILLION dollars!!! Would someone explain to these people that they are giving away money that we do not have, and have to borrow from others (China?) to pretend we do have. We also have to pay it back to whomever, one way or another. Someone make them stop!!!
2 people like this.

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