{"id":1147540,"date":"2021-12-23T18:49:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1147540"},"modified":"2021-12-23T18:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T23:49:49","slug":"rand-pauls-festivus-report-u-s-spent-millions-grinding-up-ferrets-constructing-walls-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rand-pauls-festivus-report-u-s-spent-millions-grinding-up-ferrets-constructing-walls-in-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Rand Paul&#039;s Festivus Report: U.S. Spent Millions Grinding Up Ferrets, Constructing Walls in the Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frand-pauls-festivus-report-u-s-spent-millions-grinding-up-ferrets-constructing-walls-in-the-middle-east%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1147540&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/RandPaul1235402842-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">The U.S. government spent millions of dollars on a range of bizarre projects, including grinding up ferrets to develop vaccines and constructing walls in the Middle East, Sen. Rand Paul\u2019s (R-KY) annual Festivus Report reveals.<\/p>\n<p>The Festivus Report details wasteful projects on which the government spent taxpayer dollars.&nbsp;The Kentucky senator\u2019s seventh annual Festivus Report found $52,598,515,585 in government waste this year.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>One of the wasteful projects featured on the list this year spent $4.5 million on using ferrets for the development of experimental drugs and vaccines (emphasis in original):<\/p>\n<p><b>Millions of dollars are spent each year to breed animals with the intent to use them for testing. Since 2010, the American taxpayer has given Triple F Farms $4.5 million<\/b> for the breeding and transporting of ferrets to COVID-19 and influenza vaccine testing laboratories,\u201d Paul\u2019s report reads, detailing a 2011 undercover investigation which uncovered \u201cvideo recordings of <b>ferrets dying in feces, run over by carts, thrown alive into incinerators, hanging from wire.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Department of Agriculture (USDA) later confirmed these violations but only fined Triple F Farms just under $44,000, a minor slap on the wrist compared to the millions of dollars of your taxpayer funds they received before and after the investigation,\u201d the report continued, mentioning recent USDA reports that reveal that abuse continues, \u201cciting <b>excessive piles of feces, scabs on the skin, empty feed bags, and soiled enclosures.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIf a facility has been found multiple times to be blatantly abusing ferrets, an animal many keep as family pets, why would the Federal government allow them to continue being used in advancing drug development?\u201d the report asked.<\/p>\n<p>The report also revealed that Congress gave the Defense Department $250 million to build border walls \u2014 structures Democrats at home have long referred to as racist as part of their argument against the U.S.-Mexico border wall \u2014 in the Middle East and North Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Per Paul\u2019s report:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>So, in the December 2020 blow-out appropriations bill, Congress spent $250 million on \u201cenhanced border security\u201d in the Middle East and North Africa. Meanwhile, the United States immigration system still has much work to be done. While we were busy funding other countries\u2019 immigration systems, in December 2020, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) received a \u201cflood\u201d of new DACA applications, ultimately resulting in a considerable backlog of over 81,000 applications, according to the agency.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Another highlight of Paul\u2019s report is the $465,339 the NIH granted to Reed College of Portland, Oregon, which hoped to \u201ccreate a token-based economy where pigeons are taught to gamble with slot machines\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The researchers admitted that this study focuses <b>\u201con laboratory models rather than practical applications,\u201d&nbsp;<\/b>but go on to explain that the findings should still be used \u2014 i.e. funded by your taxpayer money \u2014 to further study \u201cbehavioral economics\u201d in humans. <b>The United States is over $28 trillion dollars in debt<\/b>. Is studying pigeon gambling habits worth adding to the mountain of debt for which future generations will become responsible?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Paul\u2019s report also found that the U.S. government spent a whopping $400 million planting trees in Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s (D) New York City:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>What if we told you that you could rake in some cash for pulling up your sleeves and <i>planting <\/i>some trees? Well, as part of the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), New York City put $400 million of their Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds toward the MillionTreesNYC initiative, in which the City\u2019s Parks Department and local homeowners plant trees across the city.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Planting 1 million trees between 2007 to 2017, the primary purpose of the project is to \u201cmake New York City more sustainable\u201d and \u201cprotect our planet.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Paul, the Nature Conservancy admits<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span>\u201cthere is no comprehensive plan or sufficient, long-term funding for managing the city\u2019s trees in the years ahead,\u201d meaning \u201cnot a penny is spent to keep these trees and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp; <\/span>the $400 million legacy alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul\u2019s entire Festivus Report can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paul.senate.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/page-attachments\/Festivus%20Report%202021_0.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. government spent millions of dollars on a range of bizarre projects, including grinding up ferrets to develop vaccines and constructing walls in the Middle East, Sen. Rand Paul\u2019s &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1147540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1147540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1147540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1147540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1147540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1147540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}