Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) shared his annual „Festivus“ report Friday showing Americans how their tax dollars were wasted in 2023.
Paul’s report totaled $900,000,000,000 in government waste, his office said in the press release, adding it was his ninth edition.
The announcement said:
Some of the highlights include the National Institutes of Health spending a portion of a $2.7 million grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill and Barbies used as proof of ID for receiving COVID Paycheck Protection Program funds. The Department of Defense ruined over $169 million worth of military equipment by leaving it outside, the United States Agency for International Development spent $6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and the Small Business Administration gave ‘struggling’ music artists like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne over $200 million.
In his report, Paul said the previous year the national debt hit $30 trillion. It is now climbing toward $34 trillion. He then spoke about who was to blame for the mountain of debt:
Everybody. This year, members of both parties in Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling, which empowered the government to borrow an unlimited amount of money until 2024.
