Posted on 01/02/2026 12:41:31 PM PST by bitt
"Festivus" was a holiday created by the writers of Seinfeld for a 1997 Christmas episode, which they jokingly made into an alternative to Christmas for those who hated the commercialization of the holidays.
One of the "traditions" created for the fake holiday was the "Airing of Grievances." In 2015, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul used that "tradition" as a springboard to write a report on government waste.
Prior to 2015, Paul would post a few comments on Twitter highlighting egregious examples of government waste. But on December 23 of that year, he released a 38-page report.
“Our investigations into federal spending may not have uncovered any government contributions to something called The Human Fund (Money for People),” read the report, another nod to the sitcom, “but we did find Uncle Sam putting taxpayer dollars to work creating a foreign made-for-TV cricket league, paying for federal yoga classes, developing a climate change video game, and studying whether being in space changes the effectiveness of golf clubs.”
In that first 2015 report, Paul found more than $1.2 trillion in wasted taxpayer funds. The 2025 edition features $1.6 trillion in waste catalogued in black and white.
https://reason.com/2026/01/02/rand-pauls-annual-festivus-report-highlights-1-6-trillion-in-wasteful-spending/
"The Festivus Report 2025 makes for alternately entertaining and frustrating reading. But, if you tally the costs of the schemes and scams, they seem to make up barely a wad of spit in the vast sewage sea of trillion-dollar-plus annual federal spending. What's a few billion dollars among grifting friends, right? But those expenses add up, year after year, especially since the federal government continues to spend vastly more money than it collects. That means each pointless (or dangerous) medical experiment or nonsensical flush of taxpayer money down the fiscal toilet increases debt and the price of borrowing.
"Our country is over $38.4 trillion in debt,
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
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I fully support Rand Paul on this.
Yak yak yak...why not tell someone who can DO something about it Rand? Cuz that you be YOU!
Wait! I give to The Human Fund and you’re telling me it’s bogus.
I think that the magnitude of government waste/fraud is so big that it gets overwhelming for most people. Add to that stubborn Republican inaction and Democrat complicity and I’d bet most people feel it’s like complaining about the weather, that is, nothing can/will be done.
Nope. Nothing but James Trafficant style ramblings that produce nothing. It doesn't mean he is incorrect, but it does mean he's what we call a "controlled resistance" that serves only to give legitimacy to the system.
If I misspent money at my job, first I get fired and then I go to court. In that order. I will likely spend a good number of my remaining years behind bars and life as I know it, is over. Forever
But if I am a politician, I claim to be a victim and am rewarded
Sen Rand Paul highlighting egregious examples of government waste released a 38-page report.
<><>found tax dollars for a foreign made-for-TV cricket league,
<><>paying for federal yoga classes,
<><>developing a climate change video game,
<><>and studying whether being in space changes the effectiveness of golf clubs.”
In that first 2015 report, Paul found more than $1.2 trillion in wasted taxpayer funds.
The 2025 edition features $1.6 trillion in waste catalogued in black and white.
wow, a politician with an actual humble view of what we should be doing.
I am sure Rand Paul has nothing to say about rampant Somali fraud
“The 2025 edition features $1.6 trillion in waste catalogued in black and white.”
I strongly suspect waste/fraud is considerably more than 1.6 trillion.
I’m glad Rand Paul (and possibly a handful of other Senators) keeps an eye on the wasteful D.C. spending and sheds the light of day on it.
Fine.
Now DO SOMETHING about it!
You can expect the Democrats to fight against any such disclosure.
No question.
The Somali fraud is bad. But IMHO the timing of the Somali fraud being made known is suspicious to me. It came when Musk was making a lot of noise about little being done to stop the hundreds of billions in fraud and wasteful spending uncovered by DOGE. I think the uniparty hopes we're all satisfied with stopping the Somali fraud and forget about the rest.
Blah, blah, blah, every year you put this out there and then ALL YEAR you do NOTHING about it,
Get back on board with Trump, HE is actually DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
You think Trump and his team care what we think of what they’re doing politically?
I have no evidence of that
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