In Anticipation of Senator Paul’s 2024 Festivus Report
As fans of the Seinfeld show know, the day of Festivus is celebrated on December 23rd and is a day to air our grievances. What will Senator Paul’s 2024 Festivus Report reveal this year?
Every December 23rd, since 2015, Senator Rand Paul has issued the Festivus Report, his annual report of government waste, airing his grievances over America’s outrageous and wasteful spending.
It sounds like a joke, and it certainly was for the Seinfeld audience, but sadly, Sen. Paul’s report is no laughing matter. Although Sen. Paul has religiously made Americans aware of the blatant and utterly insane government waste since taking office in 2010, his issuance of the annual Festivus Report should be read and understood by all taxpayers.
Anyone who is not outraged must not be paying much in taxes. If a person is not a taxpayer, aside from being truly disabled (and even the blind work), then why is that?
Maybe the 16th Amendment can be abolished and replaced with a luxury sales tax so we no longer have to pay income tax? But at the present time, we continue to fork over far too much money for the government to plunder our hard-earned salaries on incredibly stupid stuff, year after year after year.
We continue to Squander Our American Inheritance.
On December 16, 2024, MSN said:
Those who didn’t tune into Fox News on Friday night missed a Republican senator’s insane meltdown about how the Biden administration is supposedly wasting “hundreds of billions” on taxpayer-funded programs that include, among other things, feeding cocaine to horny quail.
Kentucky’s Sen. Rand Paul appeared on Hannity to provide details of his forthcoming ‘Festivus’ report, an annual review of what he considers wasteful public spending, during which he also claimed to be in “weekly” consultations with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
A meme-coin themed advisory commission headed up by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the initiative has been established with a view toward razing government programs across the board. Rand claims to have already shared more than “2000 pages of waste” with the group.
Previewing some of his findings from the upcoming report, which is due to be released Dec. 23, Rand told host Sean Hannity, “We will talk about electric charging stations, electric cars, but we’ll also be talking about government funding for ice skating drag queens, we’ll be talking about taxpayer-funded magic.”
Wow – “supposedly wasting ‘hundreds of billions’ on taxpayer funded programs” with hundreds of billions of dollars in quotes! Yes, Senator Paul describes $900 billion dollars of federal funds WASTED in 2023 and found $482 billion dollars WASTED in 2022.
Of course, the dependent class (whether they wear pajamas all day or are an overpaid bureaucrat) are scared that the spigot will be turned off. They will have to get a real job now, and hopefully, that will turn out to be a good thing, ultimately, when they realize the value of earning a paycheck, not just monetarily, but in the new skills learned that only enhance a personality.
And then, they too, can be enraged at the government waste taken from their own paycheck.
Last December, Fox News reported:
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Friday released his annual Christmas "Festivus" report for the ninth year in a row, outlining $900 billion in government waste.
Among notable instances, the National Institutes of Health allocated funds to study Russian cats on treadmills; photos of Barbies were utilized as identification to obtain COVID relief funds; the Department of Defense lost $169 million of outdoor-stored military gear; $6 million went towards tourism in Egypt by the United States Agency for International Development; and the Small Business Administration provided over $200 million to "struggling" music artists such as Post Malone, Chris Brown and Lil Wayne.
Up from $30 trillion in debt in 2022, this year's debt amounts to $34 trillion, the report also highlights.
If you have not read the 2023 Festivus Report, it should be a must read for all Americans. It begins:
Sen. Paul’s 2022 Festivus Report revealed $482 billion of taxpayer dollars wasted.
Read it and weep or rejoice now that it has the eyes of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who seem eager to restore America back to a less wasteful and more functioning government through D.O.G.E., hopefully. Hopefully.
Ironically enough, the government may shut down today since the Uni-Party’s pork filled, out-of-control, totalitarian-esque 1,547-page omnibus continuing resolution finally got push back. Thank you, Elon. But the practice of releasing a 1,547-page bill mere hours before a vote is also crazy. Why is this ok? It is not ok. This practice must end because we all know haste makes waste.
So, what happens when the government shuts down?
History.com tells us that there have been 10 U.S. government shutdowns since the 1980s. Does anyone recall how it affected their lives? Not getting mail might be an issue during the Christmas season, but I don’t recall the mail stopping before. Unless a person works for, or with, the federal government, how does it disrupt our lives? Ok, so that rare Christmas trip to the Grand Canyon for a few might be foiled, but what else?
Newsweek tells us:
Postal Service operations will not be interrupted in case of a government shutdown, and all Post Offices will remain open for business as usual," the spokesperson wrote in a statement.
The USPS is funded through the sale of their products and services, rather than tax dollars. This means their funding is not included in the appropriations bills Congress must decide on by the end of the month to avert the shutdown.
Postal services are actually one of the federal government functions according to Clause 7 of Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
If the government shuts down (partially) and that does not affect us much, then what do we need from a federal government?
To protect us from flying drones or Chinese spy balloons that might cause us harm, perhaps? But, that should be included in the $850 billion dollar Department of Defense budget, right?
On November 5, 2024, the majority of We the People voted to bring back a civilized society that values law and order in a sovereign country. Wasteful, reckless spending can not be tolerated anymore. When is enough, enough?
Look for Senator Paul’s 2024 Festivus Report coming soon to an inbox near you.
Eye-watering waste. SHUT IT DOWN. And on top of that, if the actual citizens paying Federal taxes fund everything the government wastes our money on, I will eat my Festivus Tree. More takers than givers at this point. And, even those who do work get money more back than they have put in. Much more. So, this government is bought and paid for with shady back alley deals to give it enough money to give away AND pile on more debt. How does that work again? There is no bankruptcy price to pay, unlike mortal men. But, I do think you have to be morally bankrupt as a prerequisite to holding a sheisty government position. (There are some good people there, don't get me wrong.) Thanks for this.
Journalist Charlotte Gill over here in the UK publicises details of similar eye-watering, wasteful and idiotic government spending here in the UK. Literally unbelievable and such an insult to those struggling to pay bills and tax on minimum wage.