Business
Rand Paul Releases Report Detailing $1,000,000,000,000 In Gov’t Waste. Here Are The Worst Offenders
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Ireland Owens
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released a report on Monday outlining more than $1 trillion in government waste from the past year.
The 2024 “Festivus” report highlighted various instances of wasteful government spending from the federal government, including a pickleball complex in Las Vegas and a cabaret show on ice. This year marks Paul’s 10th annual report.
“This year, I am highlighting a whopping $1,008,313,329,626.12,” Paul wrote in the report. “That’s over $1 trillion in government waste, including things like ice-skating drag queens, a $12 Million Las Vegas pickleball complex, $4,840,082 on Ukrainian influencers, and more! No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians keep demanding even more.”
The Department of the Interior (DOI) spent $12 million on a Las Vegas Pickleball Complex, according to the report. The DOI also spent $720,479 on wetland conservation projects for ducks in Mexico.
“I have a lot of problems with federal spending, and now it’s time to hear all about them,” Paul wrote in the report.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded the Bearded Ladies Cabaret a $10,000 grant to support a cabaret show on ice skates focused on climate change, according to the report. The NEA also spent $365,000 to promote circuses in city parks, the report states.
The State Department spent $500,000 to expand the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia’s #USInvestsInEthiopians social media campaign to a larger national public relations campaign, according to the report. The State Department also sent $253,653 to Bosnia to fight “misinformation,” spent $2.1 million for Paraguayan Border Security, and spent $3 million for ‘Girl-Centered Climate Action’ in Brazil, according to the report.
The Department of Health and Human Services spent $419,470 to determine if lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats, the report states.
The National Science Foundation spent $288,563 to ensure bird watching groups have safe spaces, also known as “Affinity Groups,” according to the report.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 12 that he had picked Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to co-chair a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at cutting down on wasteful government spending.
“As always, taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but I’ve been fighting government waste like DOGE before DOGE was cool, Paul wrote in the report. “And I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season.”
Many Americans have faced steep costs amid high inflation throughout President Joe Biden’s term, with inflation hitting a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. While inflation rates have eased some since June 2022, prices still remain high, with the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of the price of everyday goods, experiencing a year-over-year increase of 2.7% in November, according to a Dec. 11 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some experts have attributed massive government spending under the Biden-Harris administration to fueling inflation rates. The national debt was at $36.16 trillion as of Tuesday, according to U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data.
A spokesperson for Rand Paul did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
From LifeSiteNews
Trump said in his first cabinet meeting that his administration will soon begin placing tariffs on products from the countries of the EU, accusing the European Union of cheating the US.
President Donald Trump blasted the European Union during the first cabinet meeting of his new administration, saying that “The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States. That’s the purpose of it.”
“I love the countries of Europe,” Trump began, “but the European Union was formed to screw the United States.”
“Let’s be honest. The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States,” he reemphasized. “That’s the purpose of it.”
“And they’ve done a good job of it,” he said, before warning: “But now I’m president.”
Trump said that his administration will soon begin placing tariffs on the products of the countries of the EU.
Asked if he expected the EU to retaliate if the U.S. imposes stiff tariffs, Trump said: “They can’t. I mean they can try, but they can’t.”
“We are the pot of gold,” he explained. “We’re the one that everybody wants, and they can retaliate, but it cannot be a successful retaliation, because we just go cold turkey, we don’t buy any more, and if that happens, we win.”
From the LifeSiteNews
The work of DOGE is ‘not an optional thing. It is an essential thing,’ Elon Musk said. ‘If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt.’
At the Trump administration’s first cabinet meeting, Elon Musk said that he’s “taking a lot of flak” for his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), adding, “I’m getting a lot of death threats.”
“We simply can’t sustain as a country a two trillion-dollar deficit,” said Musk, explaining why the work of DOGE is so important to the functioning of the country.
“Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds Defense Department spending,” said the tech billionaire. “We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we’re spending over a trillion dollars on interest. If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt.”
Only DOGE can save the US from bankruptcy
Musk said that the work of DOGE is “not an optional thing. It is an essential thing.”
“If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt,” he emphasized. “That’s why it has to be done.”
“I’m confident at this point … that we can find a trillion dollars in savings,” he said. “That would be roughly 15 percent of the seven trillion-dollar budget.”
“And obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room,” he said to the cabinet secretaries. “And I would like to thank everyone for your support.”
“DOGE is a support function for the president and for the agencies departments to help achieve those savings and to effectively find 15 percent reduction in fraud and waste,” he explained.
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