Congress and federal agencies wasted more than $1 trillion of taxpayer money in 2024, according to an analysis published by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, who has long called for fiscal responsibility and the end of waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money.
Wasting taxpayer money and uncontrolled spending has made the national debt worse, he argues, which this year surpassed $36 trillion.
“Americans are paying $892 billion in fiscal year 2024 on Uncle Sam’s credit card,” he said, referring to the interest paid on the national debt.
In Paul’s Festivus Report 2024, he says “members of both political parties in Congress voted for massive spending bills, filled with subsidies for underperforming industries, continued military aid to Ukraine, and controversial climate initiatives. As Congress spends to reward its favored pet projects, the American taxpayers are forced to pay through high prices and crippling interest rates.
“Members of Congress continued to send “Americans’ hard-earned money to foreign countries, funding endless wars, all while STILL ignoring our wide-open southern border,” he said.
Highlights of the report include the federal government spending $10 billion “on maintaining, leasing, and furnishing almost entirely empty buildings,” and more than $7 million on various “magical projects.”
The U.S. Department of State appears to be a top agency waster of taxpayer money, Paul notes. Highlights include the agency spending:
nearly $5 million on influencers;$3 million on ‘Girl-Centered Climate Action’ in Brazil;$2.1 million for Paraguayan Border Security;nearly $900,000 to the Royal Film Commission to produce movies in Jordan;$500,000 to expand the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia’s “#USInvestsInEthiopians social media campaign to a larger national public relations campaign Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”;$345,434 on football engagement to counter terrorism,$330,000 to censor conservative media;more than $250,000 to Bosnia to fight “misinformation;”more than $123,000 to teach Kyrgyzstan youth how to go viral;more than $108,000 on a non-functioning hotel;more than $32,500 for breakdancing.
Other examples Paul cited as wasteful spending include the U.S. Department of the Interior spending $12 million on a Las Vegas pickleball complex and more than $720,000 on wetland conservation projects for ducks in Mexico, according to the report.
Also notable in the report was the U.S., Department of Health and Human Services awarding a $2 million grant to study children looking at Facebook ads about food and nearly $420,000 on a “Depressing Study of Lonely, Starved Rats” to determine if lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats.
The Department of Energy spent “$15.5 billion to push Americans toward electric vehicles they don’t want.” The National Endowment for the Arts spent $365,000 to promote circuses in city parks, awarded the Bearded Ladies Cabaret a $10,000 grant to support a cabaret show on ice skates focused on climate change, and since 2015 has awarded $385,000 for art displays on the High Line.
The U.S. Treasury Department granted a failed trucking company a $700 million pandemic-era loan; the National Science Foundation spent nearly $290,000 “to ensure bird watching groups have safe spaces.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $20 million on the Fertilize Right Initiative to advance fertilizer use in Pakistan, Vietnam, Colombia, and Brazil.
The Agency for International Development spent $20 million on “Ahlan Simsim” a new Sesame Street show in Iraq; the U.S. Navy is set to waste almost $90 billion on ineffective Navy vessels, the report notes.
