Senator Rand Paul is back with his annual takedown of government spending, revealing a jaw-dropping $1.6 trillion in government waste this year, including millions spent on teaching ferrets to binge-drink alcohol and dosing dogs with cocaine, as per Fox News. The Kentucky Republican unveiled his 11th annual “Festivus Report,” detailing some truly wonky and questionable ways the federal government is dumping taxpayer dollars into pet projects and obscure studies.
Paul has always been the top fiscal hawk in Congress, routinely voting against giant spending packages because he thinks Washington isn’t serious about tackling the growing debt. He believes that even when lawmakers talk tough about fiscal discipline, they just can’t help but spend more. In this report, Paul noted that the grand total of $1,639,135,969,608 includes a staggering $1.22 trillion dedicated just to interest payments on the national debt.
“No matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can’t help but demand more,” Paul said, setting the tone for his yearly review. He continued, “So, before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (Spending) Grievances.” Paul pointed out that the Congressional Budget Office predicts the government will add an average of $23.9 trillion in debt annually for the next decade. That means the U.S. government will be adding over $6.53 billion of debt every single day for the next ten years.
If you break it down further, we’re borrowing over $75,000 every single second.
The most unbelievable section of the report highlights the bizarre animal experiments funded by your money. Taxpayers forked over more than $1 million to teach “teenage ferrets to binge-drink alcohol.” And it gets worse: over $5 million was spent to dose dogs with cocaine, and roughly $13 million was dedicated to continuing experiments on beagles. If that wasn’t weird enough, the government also spent over $14 million to teach monkeys how to play a game inspired by the classic show “The Price is Right.”
It’s not just animal research that made the list. The report highlighted several programs where money was funneled into projects that completely miss the mark on priorities. For example, Congress previously allocated over $7 billion to build electric vehicle charging stations nationwide. The catch? So far, only 68 have actually been built. That’s an awful return on investment for the amount of cash involved, especially after a major US car manufacturer pulled the plugs on its EV future.
We also saw massive misuse of COVID-19 relief funds. Schools received nearly $200 billion in relief money, which was then spent on things like renting out MLB stadiums, paying for rooms at Caesars Palace, and even buying ice cream trucks.
Other programs focused on human behavior were equally head-scratching. The government spent over $40 million to hire social media influencers to promote getting the COVID-19 vaccine, specifically targeting racial and ethnic minority groups. Another over $1 million was spent to hire celebrity influencers for anti-drug campaigns targeting “Latinx” communities. Researchers also received over $2 million just to take saliva swabs at electronic dance music festivals in New York City.
Paul did laud moves taken by the Trump administration to slash government spending, noting a nearly $9 billion rescissions package that cut funding for public broadcasting and some foreign aid. While he called that action “a good start,” he quickly added that it was “just a drop in the bucket” compared to the tsunami of new debt Congress creates every year, like the “Big Beautiful Bill” that he criticized previously.
Published: Dec 23, 2025 05:30 pm