Senator Rand Paul released his ninth annual “Festivus Report” on Dec. 23, chronicling how the federal government wasted $900 billion of taxpayer’s money in 2023.
Here are some of the inane things the federal government spent taxpayer money on this year, according to the Festivus Report:
$659,000,000,000 solely in interest on the national debt;
$6,000,000 to boost Egyptian tourism;
$33,200,000 million to fund “Monkey Island” in South Carolina, where the National Institutes of Health (NIH) feeds, houses and cares for monkeys before shipping them to research labs;
$38,000,000 to pay dead people;
$8,395 for a lobster tank at the U.S. Department of Defense;
$3,800,000 to study “COVID-19 misinformation” on social media in black and rural communities;
$477,121 to Dr. Anthony Fauci for a “transgender monkey study”;
$200,000,000 to multi-millionaire musicians through a COVID-19 relief grant;
$400,000,000 in cash for political campaigns;
$236,000,000,000 in improper payments.
Sen. Paul’s “Festivus Report 2023” is a play off of Festivus, a secular holiday celebrated on December 23. It includes an “airing of grievances” and was popularized in 1997 by the television show “Seinfeld.” The senator uses the opportunity to express his objections to the federal government’s wasteful spending.
“Last Festivus, we lamented over the national debt reaching an astronomical $30 trillion,” the report states. “Shockingly, in one short year, the career politicians and bureaucrats in Washington have managed to approach $34 trillion in debt, without so much as a second thought.”
Because of the federal government’s extraordinarily high spending levels, taxpayer dollars can’t pay for everything in its budget. The U.S. Treasury issues debt to pay for the items it can’t afford with taxpayer’s money.
The report adds:
Who’s to blame for our crushing level of debt? Everybody.
This year, members of both parties in Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling, which empowered the government to borrow an unlimited amount of money until 2024. As Congress spends to reward its favored industries and pet projects, the American taxpayers are forced to pay the price through record high inflation and crippling interest rates.
The report also points out that, barring substantial changes, the U.S. government will add $2 trillion in debt each year for the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That equates to $5 billion of debt each day; or $200 million per hour; or $3 million every minute; or $60,000 each second!
Considering millions of Americans work extraordinarily hard every day just to put food on their table, the above items are ludicrous wastes of taxpayer money.
In 2020, over 164 million American filed tax returns; the average federal income tax payment was $16,615.
People bringing in between $50,000 and $75,000 – the most common income bracket – paid an average of $4,567 in income taxes.
But that money doesn’t include the portion of the U.S. national debt every taxpayer is on the hook for. Each taxpayer also owes $259,949 as their share of the national debt.
Proverbs 22:7 says,
The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is the slave of the lender (ESV).
Taking the proverb at its word, the average U.S. taxpayer is a slave – and part of the reason is government spending on lobster tanks, Egyptian tourism and “transgender monkeys.”
Until the American people demand better government and reduced spending from their elected representatives in Congress, it’s all but assured that in Washington, D.C., 2024 will look a lot like 2023: more spending, more taxes and more debt.
Related articles and resources:
Taxpayer Money for Beagle Puppies, Romancing Parrots, and Fighting Hamsters, Oh My!
$1.5 Million to Walk Lizards on Treadmills? Ten Crazy Things Uncle Sam Spent Your Money on This Year
Photo from Getty Images.
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