Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released his annual report this week detailing government waste in honor of the parody holiday “Festivus,” highlighting over $54 billion in taxpayer dollars spent on items including a study examining eating ground-up bugs, spraying alcoholic rats with bobcat urine, and walking lizards on a treadmill.
“Good morning and Happy #Festivus. Today we will air some more grievances in the holiday tradition!” Paul said in a lengthy Wednesday tweetstorm, highlighting various ways the government has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars over the last year alone:
I’ll throw in a new wrinkle this year because SO MANY people are joining in with my grievances that I want to highlight how the word is spreading — your government is out of control, and a LOT of us have grievances.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020
This year, Paul identified $54,746,524,505.37 in government waste, which includes studies on consuming ground-up bugs ($1,327,781.72) as well as the prevalence of party drug use at NYC clubs and raves ($1,454,217).
Additionally, the National Science Foundation received $1,557,083 and walked lizards on a treadmill, while the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs received $4,575,431 in grants to spray alcoholic rats with bobcat urine.
Regarding lizards on treadmills, Paul’s report explained researchers “spent a million and a half taxpayer dollars to get six lizards, walk them on a treadmill while taking X-rays with 3D imaging technology, and then figure out how their joints moved.” – READ MORE
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