Rand Paul Exposes Nearly $500B In Government Tax-Wasting Expenditures

Rand Paul released his eighth annual Festivus report just ahead of the Christmas holiday.

Videos by Rare

Truth be told, his Festivus report is one of the best accumulations of government waste that is published. The publishing of it just before Christmas is its lone weakness. Timing is everything. At that time, no one is paying attention.

His report found $482,276,543,907 in government waste. 

Paying attention now? 482 Billion. A report from the American Tax Foundation stated there were 148.3 Million tax returns processed. If we just pretend that Paul’s number is the only waste, which it probably isn’t, that is over $3200 per tax return that could have gone back to the American people.

Paul is the incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC). He is also a Republican-aligned Senator from Kentucky — though Paul has said he is a constitutional conservative and supporter of the seemingly vanished Tea Party movement.

He offered plainspeak right from the beginning.

“Who’s to blame?,” he wrote. “One need not look further than the $3.5 trillion that the big
government politicians in Congress spent on the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which
ultimately does nothing to truly combat rising inflation rates.

“Worse, those same big spenders have just teamed up to pass a pork-laden $1.9 trillion omnibus spending package for 2023, released in the dead of night, and voted into law without anyone having read it.”

What were some of the worst wastes?

The list is so long and varied that picking the worst will be a personal preference. Honestly, this is a good point to go check it out on your own, if you want to. Here is a link to the 24-page doc.

If you want some of my personal head-scratchers:

The “Visit Tunisia” project was announced in early 2022. It was a $50M investment by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). For some reason, it was launched to encourage Americans to visit Tunisia. So, first, why are tax dollars going to advertise for Tunisia — or anywhere? Moreover, Tunisia is one of the most visited countries in Africa and had generated more than $1 billion in revenue before this legislation was passed.

What are we doing to animals?

Here are the known things that tax dollars are going towards:

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded Northeastern University with over $3M dollars every year since 1996. Why? Oh, to watch steroid-injected hamsters fight one another. It is being masked as a study as to whether current drugs for aggressive youth suppress steroid-induced aggression.

More wonderful behavior from the NIH as it spends money in horrific ways. The NHI’s National
Institute on Drug Abuse gave SRI International $2.3M to inject beagle puppies with cocaine.

Yes. You read that correctly. SRI International was then determined to not have the right equipment to drug the puppies, which then had to be moved to Charles River Laboratories. That was an easy relationship to form because Charles River Lab received $13.5M to inject primates with Ebola, Tuberculosis and other deadly viruses.

The NIH has also given the University of Concepcion in Chile $1M to study the influence of glycine receptors on alcohol consumption….by training mice to get drunk.

We are spending tax dollars to study how mice get drunk. And paying a University in Chile to find out this information.

My personal favorite though, is easy.

“Four people managed to use over $31.5 million in COVID-19 relief funds to purchase luxury cars.”

Four people. One of which is not American. Used $31.5M in tax money to buy cars.

Again, from the report: “I’m talking really expensive vehicles, here: Porsches, Ferraris and even Lamborghinis. One managed to purchase a whole “fleet” of luxury cars using $17 million (yes, you read that right) taxpayer dollars, which included a Corvette Stingray, a Porsche Macan and a Bentley Convertible.

“Of that, the Federal government has only recouped $7.2 million. Another man used $5 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to purchase a Lamborghini and Ferrari, ‘among other luxury cars.'”

You should read the rest of the report. And mark your calendar for the report release before Christmas.

What do you think?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Waffle House Erupts Into Wild WWE-Brawl Involving Cooks and Customers

Phillipa Coan: Did You Know Jude Law’s Wife Is a Psychologist?