While it may have been tongue-in-cheek at the time, there’s a reason that one of former President Ronald Reagan’s most enduring quotes is, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
And that’s because it’s unquestionably, irrevocably true.
One of the GOP’s leading fiscal hawks, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, has proven that true yet again.
In what’s become both a funny and horrific annual tradition, Paul released his “Festivus Report,” exposing all the ways in which the government grossly and irresponsibly handles taxpayer money.
In the past, the “Festivus Report” has exposed the government wastefully funding things like research about lizards on a treadmill, studies on hot tubs, and yacht subsidies.
It’s shameful, and hasn’t gotten much better as the federal government continues to become a bloated caricature of what our founding fathers had originally envisioned.
I am BACK, and I’m ready to air more grievances against government waste, Congress, Fauci, endless wars, foreign aid, and many, many others.
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2025
This year’s report is just as obscene — and infuriating.
“Last Festivus, we clamored over the national debt reaching over an astronomical $36 trillion. Shockingly, in one short year, the career politicians and bureaucrats in Washington have managed to reach nearly $40 trillion in debt, without so much as a second thought,” Paul wrote. “When asked who’s to blame for our crushing level of debt, the answer is ‘Everyone.’”
How’s this for starters?
Paul uncovered that the Department of Health and Human Services had previously spent over $40 million on influencers to help push the COVID vaccine, particularly for racial or ethnic minority groups.
(You know, the vaccine that the current FDA just slapped with an ominous “Black Box” label.)
Here’s an especially absurd one, lifted verbatim from the report: “Coked-Up Canines Redux: NIH spent $5,215,216 to dose dogs with cocaine. Again.”
Oh, and for some reason, the Department of Veteran Affairs spent over a million dollars “teaching teenage ferrets to binge drink alcohol.”
The National Science Foundation was blasted several times in the report, including for nearly $2.5 million for programs designed to push insects as “food for humans.”
Of course, some classic leftist causes ate up a ton of money, as well.
The now-defunct USAID had earmarked $2 million to help for “gender-affirming care,” activism, and influence campaigns… in Guatemala.
Oh, and one more from the Department of Health and Human Services: They saw fit to spend $22.6 billion on “things like furniture, car repairs and home down payments, as well as welfare for illegal immigrants.”
(Remember when the left screeched that illegal immigrants weren’t getting benefits?)
And so on, and so forth. If you really want to get your blood boiling this Christmas season, that whole report is worth a read.
Look, I understand that certain parts of MAGA (including President Donald Trump himself) aren’t especially big fans of Paul at the moment, but someone needs to be a genuine fiscal hawk in the age of studying whether or not aborted fetal tissue can be implanted in “humanized mice” at the cost of $2.8 million.
It’s obscene. It’s offensive. It’s expensive.
And it’s the sort of bloated government that our forefathers explicitly warned us about.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
