Another Year Of Government Waste - How $1 Trillion Of Your Tax Dollars Was Spent

Sen. Rand Paul released a report on Monday outlining more than $1 trillion in government waste from the past year.

The 2024 "Festivus" report highlighted various instances of wasteful government spending from the federal government. This year marks Paul's 10th annual report which is 41 pages long.

"This year, I am highlighting a whopping $1,008,313,329,626.12," Paul, R-Ky., wrote in the report. "That's over $1 trillion in government waste, including things like ice-skating drag queens and $4,840,082 on Ukrainian influencers, and more! No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians keep demanding even more.

I have a lot of problems with federal spending, and now it's time to hear all about them," Paul wrote in the report.

Here are some of the highlights of where your money went to from the report:

The Department of the Interior spent $720,479 on wetland conservation projects for ducks in Mexico.

The National Endowment for the Arts awarded the Bearded Ladies Cabaret a $10,000 grant to support their "Beards on Ice," an ice skating drag show focused on climate change. The NEA also spent $365,000 to promote circuses in city parks, the report states.

The State Department spent $500,000 to expand the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia's #USInvestsInEthiopians social media campaign to a larger national public relations campaign, according to the report. The State Department also sent $253,653 to Bosnia to fight "misinformation," spent $2.1 million for Paraguayan border security, and spent $3 million for "girl-centered climate action" in Brazil, the report says.

The Department of Health and Human Services spent $419,470 to determine if lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats, the report states.

The National Science Foundation spent $288,563 to ensure bird-watching groups have safe spaces, also known as "affinity groups," according to the report.  

The National Institutes of Health spent over $1.5 million on what it calls "medieval-type experiments" on kittens.

The Agency for International Development (USAID) is spending $20 million on "Ahlan Simsim" a new Sesame Street show in Iraq.

The Department of State allocated $32,596.12 for breakdancing.  On and on it goes.

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 12 that he had picked Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to cochair a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), aimed at cutting down on wasteful government spending.

"As always, taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but I've been fighting government waste like DOGE before DOGE was cool," Paul wrote in his report. "And I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season."

Many Americans have faced steep costs amid high inflation throughout President Joe Biden's term, with inflation hitting a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. While inflation rates have eased some since then, prices still remain high, with the consumer price index, a measure of the price of everyday goods, experiencing a year-over-year increase of 2.7% in November, according to a Dec. 11 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some experts have attributed massive government spending under the Biden-Harris administration to fueling inflation rates. The national debt was at $36.16 trillion as of Tuesday, according to U.S. Treasury fiscal data.

The largest amount of government spending highlighted in Senator Paul's report is the money spent to cover national debt. With the national debt over $36 trillion, the Congressional Budget Office reports that Americans are on track to pay $892 billion in interest alone, and by 2034, interest payments may reach $1.7 trillion a year.

"This isn't just some theoretical problem for future generations to deal with," Paul said. "This is a problem that's affecting us right here, right now. That's $12.9 trillion we will spend on interest over the next decade instead of things that actually matter. It's $12.9 trillion that could have gone to improving our healthcare system or lowering taxes for hardworking Americans."

Last year, federal interest cost tax payers $658 billion.