Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday unveiled his annual ‘Festivus’ report, lamenting on the humungous amount of government waste.
“Paul’s 2022 Festivus report highlights $482,276,543,907 in government waste and includes $2.3 million used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for an experiment involving injecting puppies with cocaine, $202,000 used by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Starbucks espresso machines, and $3 million for the construction of a Gandhi museum,” Breitbart reports.
My annual Festivus Report is here airing $482 billion worth of federal waste grievances. There’s money to study hamsters on steroids, puppies on cocaine, drunk mice and more! https://t.co/gzFi0AkZ3s
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2022
Scroll down for the Festivus thread:
🎉This will be the 10th year in a row that I’ve celebrated #Festivus with you 🎉By celebrated I mean have a little fun at the expense of Washington. If we don’t laugh we might cry.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
The last few years have seen petty tyrants literally tripping over each other to win dumbest covid lockdown or mandate idea. Congratulations to Dr. Fauci though for always coming out on top there.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
What really got some people to finally turn on Fauci was finding out he funded torturing puppies and monkeys. And no, I’m not kidding. https://t.co/g9QTxg5lgg
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
Of course Fauci is in the lead for government officials doing dumb or evil things – but he’s far from the only one.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
If you want to read it all you’ll have to go to my official senate office's website or social media. But I’ll tell you about some of my favorites here. pic.twitter.com/R54mErVock
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
Cont. from Breitbart:
According to Paul, the DOD wasted millions this year, including $28 million on “camouflage” uniforms that did not work.
Per the Festivus report:
A Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report revealed that the Department of Defense (DOD) spent roughly $28 million on forest-patterned, “camouflage” uniforms to use in the deserts of Afghanistan. It was later found that the camouflage uniforms were “not based on an evaluation of its appropriateness for the Afghan environment.”
The DOD also spent $192,952 on what the report describes as “top-of-the-line” Starbucks espresso machines.
The NIH also wasted a significant amount of money. That includes $2.1 million on encouraging Ethiopians to wear shoes, $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, $1.1 million on “training mice to binge drink alcohol,” over $519,000 using mice to study racial aggression, and $187,500 on “verifying that kids love their pets.”
According to the report, the pet grant went to Kent State University, which used the funds to apparently “verify that the relationship between pets and children is beneficial to mental health.”
Other highlights directly from the report include:
- Maintaining 77,000 empty Federal buildings (GSA)………………..………….$1,700,000,000
- Helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation (DHS)……………………….…. $168,000,000
- Overpaying government contractors for a terminated contract (GSA)…………..$69,000,000
- Using COVID relief funds to construct an 11,000 square foot spa……….……. $140,000,000
- Watching hamsters fight on steroids (NIH)………………………..………….…..$3,000,000
- Studying the romance between parrots (NSF)……………..………………………….…$689,222
- A radio campaign telling drivers to stop at railroad crossings (DOT)………………..$200,000
Here are some additional highlights from Rand Paul’s Festivus Report:
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
The war on cannabis is among the many dumb things congress does, but it's by no means the dumbest. Every year hundreds of billions of your dollars are wasted. Let's look at a few more of the worst examples of that. pic.twitter.com/VS3CUjYtB4
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
I've got a few more things to say this #Festivus, but I'll be back later. Go finish your shopping and baking for a while!
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2022
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