Paul's annual 'Festivus' report on fed spending finds $482B in what he calls 'wasted taxpayer' money

Sen. Rand Paul on Friday released his annual federal spending audit in which the Kentucky Republican found what he considers about $500 billion in wasted taxpayer resources – from billions on COVID-19 relief funds to ineligible recipients to a $118,000 study on the Marvel movie villain Thanos.

Paul’s 2022 Festivus Report – inspired by the send-up Festivus holiday on the "Seinfeld" sitcom – finds "a whopping $482,276,543,907" worth of federal waste, according to Fox News.

Paul takes particular aim at the $3.5 trillion Inflation Reduction Act that the Democrat-controlled Congress recently passed.

“Who’s to blame?” asks Paul, who further argues the bill “ultimately does nothing to truly combat rising inflation rates."

He released the report one day after the Senate passed a $1.9 trillion omnibus spending bill to fund the federal government through fiscal 2023.

Paul in his report appears to put the blame on Washington Democrats and Republicans, calling those responsible for the passage of both simply "big spenders."

Paul’s report targets the big and small – from the $475 billion spent to pay interest on the national debt to the Defense Department spending nearly $200,000 on espresso machines from Starbucks, Fox News also reports.

"At least Americans can rest assured that our military personnel will be perky and energetic even as they pour American taxpayer dollars – and perhaps a few overpriced coffee grounds – down the drain," the report states.

The report also shows the National Science Foundation spent $118,000 to discover that it was unlikely that Thanos could snap his fingers while wearing the Infinity Glove and make half of all life in the universe disappear.

Wait... Paul included the $475 billion interest on the debt?

So $482b - $475b = $7 billion? There’s only $7b of waste in a $1.5T spending bill?

That’s only $20 of waste per person. I’m thinking that’s a win.

I’m shocked Paul didn’t include the Ukrainian funds. But kudos to him for not doing that.

I’m sure there must be much more waste in there than that. I think Paul got lazy.

Thank you for referencing that article E. Pluribus Unum. Please note that the following critique is directed at Sen. Ron Paul and not at you.

"Paul's annual 'Festivus' report on fed spending finds $482B in what he calls 'wasted taxpayer' money"

Respectively to Paul, instead of understating the problem with the word "wasted," why doesn't Paul exercise one-person majority power to kill omnibus spending bill by doing the following?

Paul (Trump?) needs to include in his ‘Festivus’ report that most federal domestic and foreign spending is unconstitutional and strongly suggest that ALL the states effectively "secede" from the unconstitutionally big federal government by repealing the 16th (direct taxes) and 17th (popular vote for federal senators) Amendments (16&17A)?

"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." —Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
“If the tax be not proposed for the common defence, or general welfare, but for other objects, wholly extraneous, (as for instance, for propagating Mahometanism among the Turks, or giving aids and subsidies to a foreign nation, to build palaces for its kings, or erect monuments to its heroes,) it would be wholly indefensible upon constitutional principles [emphases added].” — Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution 2 (1833).

Once patriots get indoctrinated voters in Democratic-pirated states up to speed with how federal Democratic and RINO elite are ripping everybody off, relatively little or ideally no discussion would be needed before ratifying a constitutional amendment that is strictly limited to repealing 16&17A imo.

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