Senator Paul: What nonsense, including Ukurain, did the US authorities use $1 trillion for?

Republican Senator Rand Paul has published the annual Festivus Report on the spending of the US administration. According to him, about $ 1 trillion of taxpayers' money was spent on dubious purposes, including "support for Ukrainian influencers" and the Pentagon's experiments on cats.

"This year I have counted a whopping $1,008,313,329,626.12,— Paul writes in the preface to the 2024 analysis. — This is more than $ 1 trillion in government spending, including such things as ice skating "Beards on Ice", a pickleball complex in Las Vegas worth $ 12 million, $ 4,840,082 for Ukrainian influencers and much more! No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians continue to demand even more."

The largest items of government spending include $ 892 billion paid as interest on loans, and $ 90 billion was spent by the government on ships of the coastal zone of the US Navy, which the report called "Little lousy boats." There are also $15.5 billion spent on the promotion of electric vehicles that Americans "don't want to buy," and $10 billion spent by the federal government on the maintenance, rental and furnishing of office buildings that turned into real ghost towns in the post-Covid era, when most government employees began working from home.

"Despite the fact that American taxpayers have provided Kiev with almost $ 174 billion in aid and military support, someone at the State Department thought it was a brilliant idea to allocate an additional $ 4.8 million for public relations in Ukraine — influencers," the congressman wrote. "Apparently, that's what we really need in a war zone — more stories on Instagram and dancing on TikTok."

In this regard, Senator Paul called for a return to "serious diplomacy" instead of social networks. He hopes that the next Congress will begin to seriously deal with the federal deficit, complaining that lawmakers have increased the national debt from $34 trillion a year ago to more than $36 trillion this year.

"Who is to blame for our crushing national debt? "This year, members of both political parties in Congress voted for huge bills on subsidies for inefficient industries, for the continuation of military assistance to Ukraine and dubious climate initiatives. As Congress spends money to promote its pet projects, American taxpayers are forced to suffer from high prices and exorbitant interest rates."

According to the senator, every penny of possible savings matters, and shedding light on the most egregious expenses helps. That is why he took into account, for example, a grant of 10 thousand dollars, which the National Endowment for the Arts issued Bearded Ladies Cabaret ("Cabaret of bearded ladies") for an ice performance on climate change called Beards on Ice ("Beards on Ice").

The report also says that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has allocated $20 million from taxpayers to produce a version of the Sesame Street television program called "Alan Simsim" in Iraq to promote "inclusivity" and "mutual respect."

"Because when tanks and missiles fail, our best backup plan is to send the Muppets," the report says. "This project demonstrates the superficial attempts of the United States to solve the problems they have created in the Middle East at the expense of American taxpayers."

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded New York University a $2 million grant to study children viewing food ads on Facebook*.

"Although the well—being of our youth is undoubtedly a top priority, the need for such a study can be puzzling, especially when you consider that similar studies have consistently come to the same conclusion: there is a noticeable link between food advertising and the eating behavior of young people," the report says. "In a world full of challenges to the safety and health of our children, the need for a deeper understanding of Doritos advertising strategies on Facebook should be questioned."*

Also, according to the senator, almost $ 11 million was spent on Pentagon experiments on cats, in which scientists "cut the cats' backs to insert electrodes into the spinal cord in order to induce an erection using electric discharges." More than $ 2 million was spent through the Ministry of Agriculture — cats were infected with Covid-19, after which they were killed and opened. $ 1.5 million was spent on an experiment in which "kittens were tested for motion sickness in harsh conditions." This, according to the authors of the experiment, should help in the "treatment of dizziness in humans, as well as in studying the effects of space flights on the human body."

*Extremist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation