The U.S. Government has spent $50 billion on needless things, according to Senator Rand Paul’s latest Waste Report, Summer 2019 edition.
The top culprit? Improper Medicare and Medicaid payments, which account for $48 billion of the $50.2 billion wasted, says Paul, chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management Subcommittee for the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Those hard-earned tax dollars are also going to some other frivolity such as:
- $2 million on an attempt to increase trust between Tunisian political parties and its citizens,
- $2 billion to convert a mental hospital into suitable Department of Homeland Security Headquarters, and
- $100,000 to expand the Pakistani film industry—a mere pittance compared to some of the other more egregious expenditures, but no less silly.
The government also forked over $5 million to New York City for cars that were allegedly—but not really—damaged by Sandy. The good news is, the federal government may get that money back for that one.
On the more obscure side of the list, $466,000 was spent on studying frog mating calls in Panama. The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, found that the urban Tungara frog has a more complex mating call than its forest-dwelling cousins. And those complex calls are preferred by the females.
“As of this writing,” Paul says in his report, “our government has piled up a debt over $22 trillion, along with a 10-month deficit of $866 billion that is projected to rise to over $1 trillion by the end of the fiscal year. As we deal with this crisis and also wrestle with paying for actual priorities, do we really want government funding studies of a non-endangered frog’s mating habits?” Related: Wall Street Unfazed By Recession Fears
The benefit of some of these expenditures made by the federal government on our behalf is questionable.
And there are even more examples of government waste that didn’t make Rand Paul’s waste report.
Other instances, says MSN.com, include:
- $28 million spent on camo for the Afghan Army that was unwearable;
- $80 million annually on wild horses kept in federal pens;
- $615K on digitizing Grateful Dead memorabilia for the University of California-Santa Cruz;
- $1 million for a tricked-out bus stop in Arlington County that comes equipped with heated benches and sidewalks and Wi-Fi;
- $5 million to ascertain that frat and sorority members drink more than their peers and that more alcohol is consumed on game days;
- $230K to determine if animals associate the color red with romance; and
- $1.3 million to determine that dogs drink differently than cats.
Senator Paul has made it one of his missions to highlight the problems with what he considers has been decades of government overspending—no matter which party is in office.
“So the question is, are we serious about the debt? Are we serious about adding a million dollars a minute to the debt? That’s what happens; we borrow a million dollars a minute,” Senator Paul said in an passionate speech on the Senate floor in late 2017.
By Julianne Geiger for SafeHaven.com
More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:
