Taking his well-known page from the humorous spoof holiday in which people could “air their grievances” on “Seinfeld,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) Friday released his annual “Festivus Report” exposing approximately $900 BILLION in federal government waste.
It’s enough to burn up one’s mental yule log, melt a few candy canes, and send Rudolf’s nose into a blaze, because the federal panderers and elitist thieves who tell us they are “investing” in our future are stealing our money, opportunities, time, and freedom.
“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.”
Yes, that’s not from a television script. It’s for real.
Related: Report: Feds Didn’t Investigate MILLIONS of Potentially Fraudulent PPP Loans | MRCTV
Adds Paul’s office:
“The Department of Defense ruined over $169 million worth of military equipment by leaving it outside…”
They don’t mean leaving it outside in AFGHANISTAN, but that’s a different, also infuriating matter.
They add:
“(T)he 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.”
And here are some more – each title representing a section of the report:
“· Barbie Doll Photo Used to Get COVID PPP Funds…………………….portion of $800,000,000,000 (PPP handouts)
· In the RED: Interest on Our National Debt is Expensive ……………..………...….$659,000,000,000
· Dr. Fauci’s Monkey Business on NIH’s “Monkey Island”……………………..………..….$33,200,000
· USAID Fund to Boost Egyptian Tourism...........................................................................$6,000,000
· USDA’s Cutting-Edge Research: Walking Dogs in the Summer……………...…...………..Unknown
· DHS Training Employees to Be Their “Authentic & Best Selves”……………..…...………..Unknown
· Russian Cats-On-A-Treadmill Studies Funded by NIH……...………........…..portion of $2,700,000
· The Government Pays Dead People … Again! (COVID handouts) .....………………………………………...$38,000,000
· DOD’s Lobster Tank (Literally a lobster tank that the DOD bought, at THIS price)………………………………………………………………………………….$8,395
· How to Ruin Expensive Military Equipment Part 1: Engines………………………...……$89,000,000
· How to Ruin Expensive Military Equipment Part 2: Transmissions……………………....$12,600,000
· How to Ruin Expensive Military Equipment Part 3: Tank Treads………...……………....$68,000,000
And there’s plenty more! Spread the cheer!
· “Real Fake”: DHS’s 1st Graphic Novel About Disinformation………………………………...Unknown
· DHS’s 2nd Graphic Novel: COVID Disinformation…………..………………………………...Unknown
· NIH’s Meth-Head Monkeys (literally giving meth to caged monkeys – whatever happened to the concept of ANIMAL ABUSE?)………………………………………………………portion of $12,000,000
· Treasury’s Pot of Cash for Political Campaigns (Paul’s office notes that as of Nov 1, 2023, no major political party is accepting these funds, which are fed by that classic “IRS Filing Check Box” that lets suckers send money into the IRS coffers to fund campaigns. That’s right, the money is being held by the gub-ment)……………………………….……….…$400,000,000
· NIH’s Monkey Casino: Gambling for Drinking Water (another insane “behavior study” that ought to be viewed as animal cruelty)………………….…….....portion of $3,700,000
· SBA’s Ticket to Backstage (subsidizing talent agencies, comedy clubs, theatres, movie theaters, music venues, and musicians, termed “small business owners,” like Nickelback and Smashing Pumpkins when the state and locally imposed, unconstitutional, lockdowns prohibited live music shows) ………………………………………………….……………….$200,000,000
· Studying COVID-19 “Misinformation” On Social Media In Black & Rural Communities…$3,800,000
· Dr. Fauci’s Transgender Monkey Study………………………………………………………...$477,121”
The report even includes photos, so it’s fun for the whole family.
If you still can afford to pay for electricity.
In fact, as one gazes, agog, at this astronomical amount of waste, and considers the theft of tax cash, the debt laid on future generations, and the sheer conceit of these kinds of wasteful pork programs, one might also ask a deeper, long-lasting question:
“Is this ALL of the waste?”
In fact, as a lecturer on economics, I try to help my students understand that this certainly is NOT all the waste and that, in fact, as a sheer function of human integrity and the reality of valuation, everything that political institutions do is wasteful.
This is axiomatic because valuation is subjective. Only through voluntary action, over one’s own life and with one’s own time and resources, can one say something has value. One says it for himself, in a market exchange with another person who does the same, in goods for service, money for goods, money for service, barter, even in the most simple things in life, like spending time on a conversation or a walk rather than working an extra hour.
When politicians take our money, that attack immediately, and, again, axiomatically, negates our ability to show our personal valuations. It replaces those with artificial mandates that the politicians prefer. Yet, of course, the politicians are not using their own money, so they cannot be said to be reflecting their own values.
Rand and I have been acquainted for years, and his Festivus Report is essential reading for anyone interested in the most inflammatory aspects of government spending. But most of the spending that is not even mentioned in this report is unconstitutional, and, beyond that, all government seizure of our money is a theft of our ability to determine what is valuable to us, as supposedly free individuals.
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