Happy Festivus!

The made up holiday from Seinfeld is once again serving as the frame for Sen. Rand Paul’s yearly report on government waste. What follows will be enough to make you laugh, cry, or break things, whichever you prefer. Heck, do all three if you’d like.

Anyway, let the airing of grievances begin.

Congress gave you $600. Would you like to know what they gave everyone else? #Festivus

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

$130 million to promote democracy in Nepal. $15 million to promote it in Pakistan. Interesting, since we can’t even seem to validate mail in ballots in the United States properly.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

OH WAIT I FOUND IT. We are going to promote Democracy in America with $132 million in “assistance for GEORGIA.” No, wait, that’s the former Soviet Republic, never mind.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

He wasn’t close to done, though. Some of these threads are really long, so I’ll just post a taste.

They also spent $36 million to study why hair turns gray. I have a few theories on that, and they all have to do with being in the U.S. Senate with people who vote for the things in this waste report.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

They spent $3m to interview San Franciscans about edible cannabis use. Really. They must not have spent a lot of time around people who love cannabis. You do NOT need to pay them to talk about it.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

I do this all day long, and I swear to God I don’t even know what that means.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

The National Institutes of Health is spending five years and $1,039,544.00 to try to help people get over their fears of going to the dentist. Read more here: https://t.co/BU1CjiZdgS pic.twitter.com/dVi9Ormo63

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

They have no skin in the game. Close the schools? No problem? Close your restaurant? Don’t worry. Here’s $600.

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 23, 2020

.@RandPaul has released his latest Festivus Report. Our government wasted over $54 billion in taxpayer dollars in 2020. https://t.co/Ks7KPKtfvb pic.twitter.com/oDqGfm1sjj

— Nick Short 🇺🇸 (@PoliticalShort) December 23, 2020

In total, Paul notes over $54 billion in obvious waste, either via ridiculous appropriations or government incompetence. You can read the full Festivus report by clicking here. It’s very detailed, including citations and explanations of many of the programs you see mentioned above. What he posts on Twitter is just a small taste of how crazy things are.

This is our government. They can shut down your business, bankrupt you, and tell you that you can’t leave your house while handing you $600 and telling you to thank them for it. Meanwhile, we are funding silly research projects and “promoting democracy” in countries that never seem to be very welcoming of said promotion. Sure, in the grand scheme of things it’s not a massive part of the total money spent by the government, but it’s waste nonetheless. There’s so much more that could be done with this money. $54 billion would build a lot of infrastructure here at home.

But look, none of this would be so bad if it weren’t so obviously being wasted. How many more billions do we need to invest in countries that never change? Does the NIH really need millions to study why hair turns gray? I think most Americans know the answers to those questions. Our political class simply doesn’t care.

(Please follow me on Twitter! @bonchieredstate)