Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released his eighth annual “Festivus Report” Friday, airing his grievances about government waste in Washington.
The report highlights $482,276,543,907 in government waste such as $4.5 billion on covid relief funds for ineligible citizens, $140 million of covid funds on a 11,000 square foot spa and $31.5 million of covid funds to buy luxury cars.
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
Additional highlights include $1.7 billion on maintaining 77,000 empty federal buildings, $168 million to assist illegal immigrants with avoiding deportation, $17 million on hotel rooms for illegal immigrants, $210 million on education projects in Jordan, $2.3 million on injecting beagles with cocaine, $3 million to watch hamsters on steroids fight, $689,22 to study parrot romance, $1.1 million to watch mice get drunk and $2.5 million on Superbowl ads.
Experiments on animals are funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the covid relief was distributed by the Small Business Administration (SBA). Other notable government agencies listed in the report include the Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
“Who’s to blame? 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,” Sen. Paul said in the report. (RELATED: Here Are The 18 Senate Republicans Who Voted For $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Bill)
“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,” Sen. Paul added.
The “Festivus Report” is inspired by an episode of famed sitcom “Seinfeld” where the characters participated in the “airing of grievances” and other rituals celebrating Festivus.
Seinfeld popularized the Dec. 23 Festivus holiday tradition celebrated by fans and secular Americans as an alternative to the Christmas season.
The national debt has surpassed $30 trillion, up from $28.4 trillion in 2021, according to the Festivus report. It costs $248,582 per taxpayer and $94, 281 per citizen, according to the U.S. Debt Clock. Interest payments on the national debt cost taxpayers $475 billion in 2022, the report says.