According to Sen. Rand Paul's annual Festival Report, the U.S. government wasted more than $1 trillion last year on bizarre and frivolous projects, such as using taxpayer money to turn rats into coke thugs.
The Kentucky Republican Party's waste control study, named after the day before the Christmas Eve holiday immortalized on the TV classic “Seinfeld,” could be approved by “legislators of both political parties” in 2024. A truly bizarre “pet project” has been revealed.
One of the most surprising spending items involves the Biden-Harris administration's Department of Health and Human Services, which is spending $419,470 on a study to “determine whether lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats.” spent.
paul's report He did not say whether scientists were able to determine which rats were attacked.
Perhaps more alarming is the fact that over the past two years Cornell University has been involved in a number of cases for the purpose of infecting cats with COVID-19 and culling them when experiments were conducted to determine whether cats could transmit the disease. It would have been awarded more than $2 million in government subsidies.
“Since January 2022, Dr. [Anthony] Mr. Fauci's NIAID and the Department of Agriculture donated $2.24 million to Cornell University to study whether felines can contract and transmit COVID-19…more than $1 million in taxpayer money. “In addition to being a waste of money, this experiment resulted in the suffering and death of more than 30 cats,” the report states.
Another problematic use of taxpayer dollars comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, which awarded a $10,000 grant to an ice-skating drag queen.
Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a self-described “queer cabaret arts organization,” gained support for its climate change-themed ice skating performance.
According to the report, the so-called “Beers on Ice” show will feature “a polar bear, a drag queen, and a character named 'Non-Binary Parent Guardian Nature,'” and will include people attending the performance. The hope is to bring awareness to climate change among everyone.
The State Department also donated a hefty $3 million to “girl-centered climate action” in Brazil, according to the report.
In a section titled “Ghost Towns Taking advantage of Government Benefits,” Rand raged that “the federal government spent $10 billion to maintain, rent, and equip almost entirely empty buildings.”
He also noted a $5 million grant from DHHS to study children viewing Facebook ads for food.
The NEA was also shamed by Paul for spending $385,000 in federal dollars on an art exhibit in New York's High Line park since 2015. That includes $40,000 for a 16-foot-tall pigeon sculpture that will soon grace Manhattan's popular walking spot.
The agency has spent $365,000 promoting sideshows in various city parks across the United States in the past few years, and most recently awarded $30,000 in grants for “free” circus arts performances in 2024. was awarded.
One of the biggest expenditures revealed in Paul's Festival Waste Report was a $12 million investment of tax dollars into a pickleball facility in Las Vegas.
The sprawling 5.4-acre, 30-court complex in Sin City was funded in part with funds disbursed by the Department of the Interior and against the wishes of neighboring homeowners. They “voted against the agreement and petitioned the city to consider relocating the complex elsewhere” due to noise pollution, increased traffic and parking congestion, and an overall decrease in quality of life and home values. “The report states that there are concerns about a decline in economic performance.”
Paul vowed to “work with Congress and the incoming Trump administration to reduce this waste” next year.
“As always, the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but I've been fighting government waste like DOGE since before it got cold,” he added. He cited President-elect Donald Trump's new efforts to downsize. .
“And I plan to continue the fight against government waste this holiday season.”
