{"id":1169545,"date":"2021-12-29T14:04:40","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T19:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1169545"},"modified":"2021-12-29T14:04:44","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T19:04:44","slug":"sen-rand-paul-highlights-govt-waste-in-annual-festivus-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-rand-paul-highlights-govt-waste-in-annual-festivus-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Rand Paul highlights govt. waste in annual Festivus Report"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fsen-rand-paul-highlights-govt-waste-in-annual-festivus-report%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=1169545&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 id=\"attachment_2555301\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2555301\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2555301\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AP21280750736580.jpg\" alt=\"Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks with reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AP21280750736580.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dzm0ugdauank9.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AP21280750736580-315x210.jpg 315w, https:\/\/dzm0ugdauank9.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AP21280750736580-655x437.jpg 655w, https:\/\/dzm0ugdauank9.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/AP21280750736580-768x512.jpg 768w\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2555301\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks with reporters as he walks on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 10:32 AM PT \u2013 Wednesday, December 29, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>As the year comes to an end, one senator is sounding the alarm over wasteful government spending throughout 2021. Republican Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is known for calling out wasteful government spending when he sees it as displayed in a floor speech back in May.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FAA was named for spending $57,000 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses,\u201d Paul explained. \u201cThese included the distance from knee-to-knee while sitting and the length of the buttocks\u2026$58,000, this was your government money put to good use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In that same floor speech, the Kentucky lawmaker also highlighted how the National Institutes of Health spent taxpayer dollars to study cocaine and the risky sex habits of quail.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026$800,000 of taxpayer money to study whether Japanese quail are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine,\u2019 Paul noted. \u201cYou think, we could have just polled the audience? You think we could have just said, \u2018What do you think?\u2019 Because that\u2019s sort of the answer. The answer is yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Americans relish heading into the New Year, that may not be the case once they find out how much the government wasted in taxpayer dollars. The Kentucky lawmaker released his annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paul.senate.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/page-attachments\/Festivus%20Report%202021_0.pdf\">Festivus Report<\/a> detailing some of the questionable projects totaling over $52.5 billion in government waste.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s 43 page report was broken down into three sections: COVID-19 spending, Afghanistan and miscellaneous. Sen. Paul noted over $40 billion was wasted on COVID-19 spending and the government\u2019s missteps in allocating pandemic relief funds.<\/p>\n<p>He mentioned how in November of 2020, the Labor Department\u2019s Office of the Inspector General found the unemployment insurance benefits program had already paid out as much as $36 billion in improper payments from the <a href=\"https:\/\/home.treasury.gov\/policy-issues\/coronavirus\">CARES Act<\/a> alone.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW:<br \/>Senator <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RandPaul?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RandPaul<\/a> releases his annual Festivus report focusing on wasteful government spending. <br \/>Full report here: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BeIBhQW7Gl\">https:\/\/t.co\/BeIBhQW7Gl<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uR7M9YnNmu\">pic.twitter.com\/uR7M9YnNmu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Stephanie Myers (@_StephanieMyers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_StephanieMyers\/status\/1474003231319543808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 23, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>It\u2019s noteworthy to point out in March of this year, Paul was one of four senators who voted against a bill to amend the Small Business Act and the CARES Act to extend the covered period for the Paycheck Protection Program.<\/p>\n<p>In one case regarding Afghanistan and wasteful spending, Paul cited an investigation from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, which found the U.S. spent at least $2.4 billion on buildings in the country that are not being used for their intended purpose, have deteriorated or have been completely destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps some of the most jarring spending projects are listed in Sen. Paul\u2019s miscellaneous section of his Festivus Report. He noted how the NIH granted Reed College over 465,000 to create a token-based economy where pigeons are taught to gamble with slot machines and study whether the birds spent, saved or gambled tokens. While that example may be seen as \u201cchump change,\u201d it all adds up. He previously spoke out on absurd studies taxpayer money is spent on.<\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s common to hear around Christmas time that it\u2019s \u201cthe most wonderful time of the year,\u201d Paul\u2019s Festivus Report is sure to leave an acerbic taste, especially as the government continues to print money despite the 39 year record high inflation.<\/p>\n<p><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/the-real-story-build-the-wall-with-gene-hamilton\/\">The Real Story: \u2018Build The Wall\u2019 With Gene Hamilton<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"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-1169545","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\/1169545","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\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169545\/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=1169545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}