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.
The fiscal irresponsibility highlighted by the senator is arguably quite tragic and not a positive development for the nation. However, for those clamoring for a return to financial stability and an end to reckless government spending, Paul’s efforts and public revelations in his annual report are a joyous occasion. To quote, and tweak, a classic and beloved Christmas song:
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
With holiday greetings,
and fiscal responsibility pleadings,
from Sen. Rand Paul,
It’s the hap-happiest day of all.”
Paul released the report early Monday morning.
“Last Festivus, we bemoaned the national debt nearing $34 trillion. In just a year, Washington’s career politicians and bureaucrats have managed to push it beyond $36 trillion — unsurprisingly, with hardly a second thought,” Paul wrote in his introduction for the Festivus Report 2024. “Who’s to blame for our crushing national debt? Everybody. This year, members of both political parties in Congress voted for massive spending bills, filled with subsidies for underperforming industries, continued military aid to Ukraine, and controversial climate initiatives. As Congress spends to reward its favored pet projects, the American taxpayers are forced to pay through high prices and crippling interest rates.”
The senator highlighted shocking facts regarding government spending, including predictions from the Congressional Budget Office that the country will add “over $6.4 billion of debt every single day for the next ten years, borrowing over $268 million every hour, $4.5 million every minute, and over $74,401 every second.” This incessant spending will culminate with the country adding “$2.1 trillion in debt annually for the next decade.”
There’s a looming fiscal crisis in the country, and Paul is one of only a few legislators bringing awareness to it. If things do not change, it will lead to an ominous future. Furthermore, the senator’s discovery of over a trillion dollars in government wasteful spending features many projects that accomplished little to nothing of significant importance. Here are some of the most egregious examples of reckless government spending in the Festivus Report 2024.
Ice-skating drag queens for climate change
Paul revealed that the government provided funds for a drag queen ice-skating performance warning about the dangers of climate change. The National Endowment for the Arts gave the Bearded Ladies Cabaret in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, $10,000 for its “Beard on Ice” performance on climate change alarmism. The artistic director for the self-described “queer cabaret arts organization” provided the following statement regarding the performance:
“It’s so impossible, the issue of climate change and climate anxiety right now — almost as impossible as drag queens learning how to ice skate. So if we can get these drag queens to ice skate, maybe, just maybe, we can solve the climate crisis.”
Incidentally, the production was forced to cancel its opening-night performance due to poor ice conditions at the outdoor ice rink where it was held, according to reports.
Millions of dollars on border security for Paraguay
The Festivus Report also found that the State Department spent $2.1 million on border security for Paraguay. This is particularly troubling because it meant the U.S. government gave millions of dollars to another country for border security while ignoring the many failures and problems along the U.S. border. Millions of dollars in taxpayer money were sent to a South American country to help ensure people were not entering it illegally while a record number of people were doing so in the U.S.
Rats, cocaine, and loneliness
The country has devoted a significant amount of resources to trying to prevent people from using cocaine. Yet, apparently, more work was needed on the topic.
The Festivus Report identified a government study in which researchers injected rats with cocaine to analyze the impact of the drug’s addiction. The Department of Health and Human Services “spent $419,470 to determine if lonely rats” sought cocaine at a greater frequency than happy rats. These funds were used by researchers to observe and “see if rats placed in positive environments would be more likely to abstain from cocaine than rats in negative and isolating environments.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the results were predictable and as what one might suspect.
Using pandemic relief funds to buy an island
The report identified the misdeeds of a Florida businessman who reportedly used COVID-19 relief funds to purchase Sweetheart Island off the coast of Florida. An investigation into the purchase found that the swindler used funds obtained from pandemic assistance to “help finance the island purchase,” according to reports.
The person who tried to buy the island fraudulently received $7.8 million in emergency pandemic aid by submitting over 30 deceitful applications. He was eventually busted, convicted for his crimes, and sentenced to over 5 1/2 years in federal prison, and agreed to return the $7.8 million in aid he received.
Millions of dollars spent on a pickleball court in Las Vegas
The Festivus Report revealed that the Department of the Interior spent $12 million to build a 30-court pickleball complex in Las Vegas. The city hoped to use these courts to host high-profile tournaments eventually and put Las Vegas on the “global pickleball map.” Pickleball is a recreational hobby, but for a country that is trillions of dollars in debt, should the government be using millions of dollars to construct pickleball courts? Logic would dictate the answer should be a resounding “no.”
Billions of dollars spent on nearly-empty office buildings
The Festivus Report identified a project in which the government wasted billions of dollars. A report from the Government Accountability Office revealed the government spent $10 billion on underutilized office buildings nationwide. This included spending $5 billion on leases for these buildings and another $2 billion on yearly maintenance costs.
According to the GAO report, “These buildings are just oversized, expensive storage units for empty desks.” This waste of cash includes millions spent on furniture and office equipment for buildings in which “offices largely remain empty,” according to the Festivus Report. A previous version of a waste report by Paul revealed that “the government spent $1.7 billion on 77,000 empty, unused properties.” This is just pure incompetence and an absolutely startling lack of regard for any semblance of fiscal responsibility.
Over $7 million on different projects studying magic
Abracadabra!
Paul also found that the government spent taxpayer funds studying multiple government projects involving magic. Part of this “magical” spending included over $6 million from the Department of Defense on a “Magic City Discovery Center.” Other projects included $250,000 in funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services to modernize its “Magic Lantern Shows and Nickelodeons” exhibition. Other acts of astonishment included giving $94,006 to the National Science Foundation to study The Magic School Bus and $388,863 to assess and analyze the podcast Magic in the United States.
Millions of dollars in advancing fertilizer use in Pakistan and Vietnam
It’s no secret that the country’s farmers are experiencing significant economic hardships in recent years. Yet despite these challenges, our country, with its sizable debt, opted to provide $20 million to foreign countries to help with their fertilizing needs. These funds were given to countries such as Pakistan, Vietnam, Brazil, and Colombia for different programs with a broad scope of objectives, including boosting the income of farmers in Vietnam — not the U.S.
Aiding in global development is a noble goal. However, spending millions of dollars to help other countries when it arguably should have been prioritized to address fiscal matters in the U.S. is another example of irresponsible government spending.
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Paul cites many other programs in which the government wastes an exorbitant amount of money for what appears to be no legitimately beneficial reason. These include spending nearly $5 million on foreign social media influencers, $2 million to study children looking at food ads on Facebook, over $123,000 teaching children in Kyrgyzstan how to go viral on social media, $1,513,299 to use kittens in a cruel study to analyze motion sickness, and many other shocking examples. These egregious acts of fiscal irresponsibility must stop. They are detrimental to the country and directly threaten the nation’s economic sustainability.
To see the numerous other examples of reckless government spending and waste, you can access Paul’s Festivus Report here.
