Rand Paul’s Annual ‘Festivus’ Report: $482,276,543,907 in Government Waste

Paul’s 2022 Festivus report highlights $482,276,543,907 in government waste and includes $2.3 million used by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for an experiment involving injecting puppies with cocaine, $202,000 used by the Department of Defense (DOD) on Starbucks espresso machines, and $3 million for the construction of a Gandhi museum.

The NIH also wasted a significant amount of money. That includes $2.1 million on encouraging Ethiopians to wear shoes, $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, $1.1 million on “training mice to binge drink alcohol,” over $519,000 using mice to study racial aggression, and $187,500 on “verifying that kids love their pets.”

According to the report, the pet grant went to Kent State University, which used the funds to apparently “verify that the relationship between pets and children is beneficial to mental health.”

Other highlights directly from the report include:

Maintaining 77,000 empty Federal buildings (GSA)………………..………….$1,700,000,000

Helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation (DHS)……………………….…. $168,000,000

Overpaying government contractors for a terminated contract (GSA)…………..$69,000,000

Using COVID relief funds to construct an 11,000 square foot spa……….……. $140,000,000

Watching hamsters fight on steroids (NIH)………………………..………….…..$3,000,000

Studying the romance between parrots (NSF)……………..………………………….…$689,222

A radio campaign telling drivers to stop at railroad crossings (DOT)………………..$200,000