Republican Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is continuing his Christmas tradition of exposing the federal government’s wasteful taxpayer money spending.
The Republican’s annual “Festivus Report” tallied up $1 trillion in spending on questionable projects across the federal government.
The wasteful spending comes as America’s national debt continues soaring ever higher.
The report is named after a fictional holiday in the sitcom “Seinfeld” that invites celebrants to an “airing of grievances.”
The government’s spending habits leave Paul, a fiscal conservative, with plenty to grump about each year.
This year, hard-working American taxpayers spent nearly $5 million on pro-Ukrainian social media influencers.
They also splashed out $12 million on a pickleball court in Las Vegas.
$10,000 in tax dollars was blown on a climate change-themed “cabaret” involving drag queens in ice skates.
The government spent another $10 billion to maintain mostly empty office buildings.
Meanwhile, taxpayers shoveled $330,000 into a liberal anti-free speech non-profit that tracks “disinformation,” among other dubious expenditures.
Throughout his single term in office, President Joe Biden signed several expensive spending bills.
Those bills added trillions to the national debt and drove inflation.
Biden also worked around courts to forgive $180 billion in student loan debt, at taxpayer expense.
In addition, billions of dollars in taxpayer money were funneled to Ukraine to keep the war with Russia ongoing.
Yet, as billions were spent on perpetuating a foreign war, a historic influx of illegal aliens poured across the open U.S. southern border.
However, wasteful spending is a bipartisan tradition, as Paul noted in his report.
“Who’s to blame for our crushing national debt? Everybody,” Paul writes in the new report.
“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.”
Government waste has become a hot topic as President Donald Trump prepares for a second White House term.
Trump has promised to radically cut bloat and reduce the national debt.
His Department on Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has set an ambitious target of slashing $2 trillion in spending.
The majority of federal spending goes toward the military and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security, which few politicians are willing to touch.
Paul was among 20 Republican senators who voted against a $200 billion bill to boost Social Security benefits last week.
He called to offset the expense by raising the retirement age to 70, but his amendment was shot down.
“If we give new people more money, we have to take it from somewhere,” Paul said.
“We have to either borrow it or print it, but it has to come from somewhere.”
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