In what has become a yearly bucket of cold water on the holiday season, Senator Rand Paul has released this year's "Festivus Report."
The comprehensive analysis of federal waste outlines all the ways that Washington wasted our money in the past 12 months. The list for 2020 is as depressing as ever. In total, Sen. Paul identified $52,598,515,585 in wasted money -- enough to cover the taxes of 3,430,636 people.
“It seems like just yesterday the national debt was $20 trillion, but now the U.S. has managed to breeze past $28 trillion, spending and wasting more than we ever have,” Sen. Paul told The Daily Wire. “While some in Washington insist on recklessly spending your taxpayer dollars, I will continue to shed light on some of the most egregious examples of government waste, and fight against excessive federal spending.”
Here are a few of the highlights (or lowlights, we suppose) from this year's report:
- $11.3 million spent by the USAID on telling the people of Vietnam "to stop burning their trash"
- $14 million from Congress to the Wilson Center, which "throws swanky parties for members of congress"
- Over $465,000 granted by the NIH to Reed College of Portland, Oregon, to "create a token-based economy where pigeons are taught to gamble with slot machines"
- $4.29 billion in "bad loans out of the Paycheck Protection Program"
- As much as $36 billion in "wasted unemployment insurance payments"
- $1.27 million in "COVID relief funds for students who actually weren’t enrolled" in one Baltimore school
- $250 million to "build border walls in the Middle East and North Africa"
- $179 million for the State Department to "fund green energy programs in Africa"
- $200,000 to teach "France about U.S. culture."
Sen. Paul does his best to reduce government waste, but as an endorser of the Convention of States Project, he knows that a Convention of States is the best way to get our nation's finances under control.
An Article V Convention of States is called and controlled by the states and has the power to propose constitutional amendments that force Congress to be fiscally responsible. These amendments, for example, can mandate a balanced budget without raising taxes, which would compel our elected leaders to cut the billions wasted every year in fraud, abuse, and incompetence.
"Years of abuse and overreach by the judicial, legislative and executive branches of the federal government have obliterated the enumerated powers established by our founders and made a mockery of the 10th Amendment rights granted to the states and the people," Sen. Paul said in his endorsement of our Project. "That’s why I support the Convention of States Project to restore the original constitutional limits on federal power by calling a limited convention to propose amendments to rein in our out-of-control federal government."
Want to join Sen. Paul and finally force Congress to balance the budget, eliminate the deficit, and reduce the debt? Sign the petition below!
