WASHINGTON – Time to drag your pole out of the crawl space.
In the most wonderful time of the year for Washington budget peddlers, Sen. Rand Paul released his annual broadcast of spending woes on Friday in honor of the “Seinfeld” immortalized “Festivus” holiday.
From science experiments on transgender monkeys to $38 million in COVID payments to people who have died, Paul’s report details what he calls a “$9 billion waste” of taxpayer funds.
“Last Festivus, we lamented the $30 trillion national debt,” Paul (R-Ky.) wrote.
“Astonishingly, in one short year, career politicians and bureaucrats in Washington have managed to run up $34 trillion in debt, without a second thought.”
Sen. Rand Paul released his annual broadcast on spending woes Friday in honor of the “Seinfeld” immortalized “Festivus” holiday. AFP via Getty Images
Paul criticized both political parties for contributing to the shortfall by voting to raise the debt ceiling at the end of May, “which gives the government the power to borrow unlimited money until 2024.”
“As Congress spends to reward industry and its pet projects, American taxpayers are forced to pay the price through record high inflation and crippling interest rates,” he said in the report.
“The same big spenders are working together, once again, to continue sending Americans’ hard-earned money to foreign countries and fund endless wars, all while ignoring our porous southern border.”
“I have a lot of problems with federal spending,” he added, channeling Frank Costanza, “and now it’s time to hear all about them.”
Paul’s Festivus 2022 report reveals some of the worst wasteful government spending this year.
Big bucks for Barbie
Hi Ken! Want to cheat the government?
While 2023 is the year of the “Barbenheimer,” it’s also the year of the “Barbencrimer” for some cheaters of the $800 billion COVID Wage Protection Program, according to the report.
From science experiments on transgender monkeys to $38 million in COVID payments to people who have died, Paul’s report details what he calls a “$9 billion waste” of taxpayer funds. carefully selected
The program, which offers loans to small business owners to keep their workforce working during the COVID-19 pandemic, uses a sketchy AI system to verify identity proof – which fraudsters quickly take advantage of.
In lieu of an actual employee ID, some scammers upload pictures of Barbie doll heads to AI systems – which seem to accept that clear plastic as “proof of identity” and OK to send a check to the scammers behind the scheme.
“The verification system did not catch the image of the doll uploaded by the fraudster,” the report said.
“Somehow the Small Business Administration approved an applicant from Toyland and sent improper PPP COVID-19 payments.”
While it’s unclear how much of the $800 billion in funds approved by congress ended up in Barbie’s tiny hands, Paul used the opportunity to rehash the entire federal response to the pandemic.
Paul criticized both political parties for contributing to the shortfall by voting to raise the debt ceiling at the end of May, “which gives the government the power to borrow unlimited money until 2024.” Irina Kulikova
“Some of us saw the writing on the wall and predicted that shutting down our economy and printing more money to pay the nation to stay home from work would be a fiscal disaster,” Paul wrote.
“But using Barbie’s face as proof of identity to steal taxpayer money is not on my COVID waste bingo card.”
Mondays for ‘starving artists’ – like Post Malone
Taking advantage of COVID funds isn’t always a crime – even if it feels like it, Paul explains.
During the pandemic, the government is offering financial assistance to entertainment venues affected by closure orders through the Small Business Administration’s Closed Venue Operator Grant.
The program, Paul said, “should provide a lifeline to small entertainment businesses across the country.”
In reality, the report found, the SBA donated more than $200 million to “dozens of major music artists and their touring companies.”
“So-called ‘small business owners,’ like Post Malone, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, and the Smashing Pumpkins, received up to $10 million each,” Paul said.
“Even Nickelback received $2 million.”
Other artists and groups that participated in the grant were Usher ($3.1 million), Leann Rimes ($2 million), Melissa Etheridge ($3.9 million) and Slipknot ($9.7 million).
“Although some claim these funds are used to continue to support staff,” Paul wrote, “artists are not required to do so, and we have no way of determining how these blank checks are used.”
What a ‘tank’ job
Only the best for our service members — and apparently that means fresh lobster, if the Pentagon’s purchase of an $8,295 lobster tank from a restaurant equipment company in Springfield, Va.
“We all know that the Department of Defense makes purchases for military operations,” Paul said in the report.
“One would imagine guns, ammunition and tanks might be among the items purchased – but according to USASpending.gov, they’re not the kind of tanks you’d think of!”
Although the seemingly lavish spending was made in this year’s Festivus report, the purchase was actually made in late 2016, according to USASpending.gov.
But the Kentucky Republican can’t seem to let a little fact-checking get in the way of an excellent game.
“I understand military personnel need to eat, but does the DOD really need a Lobster tank?” Paul wrote.
“I think we can all agree that this is not the tank that Americans think their tax dollars are funding. “
“As Congress spends to reward industry and its pet projects, American taxpayers are forced to pay the price through record high inflation and crippling interest rates,” he said in the report. Getty Images
Monkeys around
Government funding of cruel experiments on primates made several pages of this year’s Festivus report.
First, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spent nearly half a million dollars to forcibly change the sex of male monkeys, according to the report.
“That’s right, NIAID used $477,121 of your tax dollars to fund the forced feminization of male rhesus macaques,” Paul said in the report.
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“Using taxpayer funds from NIAID, a Florida lab set out to study what would happen if female hormones were given to male monkeys.”
The reason?
To study whether male monkeys pumped full of female hormones are more susceptible to HIV.
“The lab sought to create ‘transgender’ male lab monkeys to address ‘social injustices’ experienced by ‘transgender people’ such as ‘transgender women who are assigned male at birth but express their gender according to the female spectrum,'” the report said. .
Problem?
“Critics point out that monkeys themselves are not susceptible to HIV, and argue that injecting male monkeys with female hormones is unlikely to yield relevant information or help humans,” Paul said.
In another experiment, the National Institutes of Health spent $171,000 of your money to study the gambling habits of monkeys — an experiment that began in 2014 but has continued for nearly a decade.
The experiment involved putting monkeys through three sets of tests. the first two show a “clear pattern” to winning, while the third pays randomly.
What they found was that monkeys love to gamble, and that they share “humans’ irrational belief in consecutive wins and losses”.
So keep that in mind the next time a monkey says he has a “system” for winning at blackjack.
The debt itself
But Paul’s biggest issue is with the $659 billion the federal government is paying just to cover interest on its debt.
“It doesn’t take a genius to foresee the dangers that come with spending money the government doesn’t have,” Paul wrote.
“It seems like robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a good fiscal strategy.”
Total 2023 interest is up from $475 billion paid in interest last year, because “as the national debt soared higher this year, interest payments increased by $184 billion,” according to the report.
“Since we don’t have the funds to pay for it, we have to borrow it – a large part from China,” lamented the senator.
“We borrowed from China to pay interest on funds we couldn’t afford to spend in the first place.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
