Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released his annual “Festivus” report Friday highlighting roughly $900 billion of government waste.
Sen. Paul’s report contains a list of miscellaneous, pricey government programs ranging from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study of Russian cats on a treadmill to graphic novel about “disinformation” by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (RELATED: Rand Paul Unveils Annual ‘Festivus Report’ Of Government Waste)
READ THE FULL REPORT:
“This year, I am highlighting a whopping ~$900,000,000,000 of waste, including an NIH grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill, Barbies used as proof of ID for receiving COVID Paycheck Protection Program funds, $6 million to promote tourism in Egypt, and $200 million to ‘struggling artists’ like Post Malone, Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne. No matter how much money the government has already wasted, politicians keep demanding even more,” the report reads.
America’s interest payments on the national debt in fiscal year 2023 cost $659 billion, with a significant amount of the funds being borrowed from China, the “festivus” report states.
The Russian cat study was part of a $2.4 million NIH grant sent to a researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology who gave a subgrant to researchers in St. Petersburg, Russia to study forward and backwards stepping by cats, according to Sen. Paul’s report. (RELATED: Rand Paul Performed Heimlich On Iowa Senator Joni Ernst)
Another notable NIH grant in the report is $33.2 million for a program to support a monkey colony where 3,000 monkeys are taken care of before being shipped to research facilities across the country.
For example, a Florida lab spent over $400,000 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study the results of giving female hormones to male monkeys. The study appeared to study whether the transgender monkeys became more susceptible to HIV after the forced hormone treatments.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Advisor and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends an event with First Lady Jill Biden to urge Americans to get vaccinated ahead of the holiday season, during a COVID-19 virtual event with AARP in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, December 9, 2022. – The First Lady is hosting a virtual town hall event to talk about the importance of getting an updated Covid-19 vaccine this holiday season, especially for Americans ages 50 and older. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The “festivus” report also shines light on a series of “disinformation” novels created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the DHS component responsible for working with third-party groups to pressure social media platforms into censoring speech online.
CISA developed a series of graphic novels, the “Resilience Series,” beginning with a novel called “Real Fake,” a book about a foreign intelligence operation to spread “disinformation” concerning a senator in order to influence an election.
Another major source of government waste identified in the “festivus” report is a $400 million political campaign war chest held by the IRS that no major political candidate has used. The account is funded by a $3 option on personal tax returns designated for presidential campaign funding.
Famous music artists such as Post Malone, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown received over $200 million from a Small Business Administration (SBA) grant program for entertainment businesses shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. It’s unclear how the payments, first reported by Insider, were used.
Fiscal year 2023 saw $236 million of inaccurate government payments by the Biden administration, a slight decrease from $247 billion in fiscal year 2022. Similarly, the government paid $38 million worth of COVID-19 related funds to dead people over the past year.
Sen. Paul’s “festivus” report is based on an episode of a legendary sitcom, “Seinfeld,” featuring the holiday. Fans of the sitcom celebrate “festivus” on Dec. 23 with rituals such as airing grievances and performing feats of strength.