On Friday, Senator Rand Paul presented a report on state spending from throughout 2022 and claims that the Biden Administration wasted as much as $482 billion of taxpayer dollars. The Republican (Kentucky) stated that significant amounts of money were used for unpublished animal studies, research on a Marvel movie villain and hundreds of thousands of coffee machines.
Paul, who is highly critical of the Omnibus Bill (passed by the Senate and soon to be taken up in the House of Representatives), first takes aim at the White House-promoted Inflation Reduction Act. The senator understands that the $3.5 trillion spending plan failed to reduce inflationary rates.
My annual Festivus Report is here airing $482 billion worth of federal waste grievances. There’s money to study hamsters on steroids, puppies on cocaine, drunk mice and more! https://t.co/gzFi0AkZ3s
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 23, 2022
The Festivus Report compiles a series of unpublished expenditures that adds up to $482,276,543,907 "in federal waste." The most striking one refers to a $3 million expenditure for a study that consisted of injecting steroids into hamsters in order to conclude whether certain drugs could calm induced aggression.
Another controversial expenditure is about $118,000 for a study that sought to determine whether Marvel movie villain Thanos would be able to snap his fingers while using the Infinity Gauntlet. "It seems they discovered what they set out to learn, but at what cost?" the report asks.
I brought along the 1.7 trillion, 4,000+ page Pelosi-Schumer omnibus spending bill that's being fast-tracked through the Senate. This process stinks. It's an abomination. It's a no good rotten way to run government. We're standing up and saying NO. pic.twitter.com/Wom6xKEeQh
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 20, 2022
At the same time, Paul points out that many of the funds that were originally intended to combat the Covid-19 pandemic were used for other things. For example, he claims that $31.5 million dollars were used to buy luxury cars for federal officials.
Finally, the report also accuses the Department of Defense of spending nearly $200,000 on coffee machines. "At least Americans can rest assured that our military personnel will be perky and energetic," the Festivus Report wryly notes.
