Today is Dec. 23, affectionately known as “Festivus,” a secular celebration that started in the 1960s but was made popular by the sitcom Seinfeld in the 1990s. It was originally created as a societal counter to the commercialism associated with the Christmas season. 

Yet despite its origins, it has also become synonymous with wasteful government spending, particularly the millions and millions of dollars in taxpayer money exposed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in his annual and appropriately named Festivus Report. The senator discovered over a trillion dollars in government waste in this year’s report, including funding for projects focused on ice-skating drag queens, the construction of pickleball complexes, and cocaine rats, among many others.