On Friday, Senator Rand Paul released a special “Festivus” edition The Waste Report, a rather hilarious and upsetting tradition the senator has kept up as chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management subcommittee. In it, he breaks down (rather humorously) all of the waste that the federal government committed over the course of 2018, highlighting the rather egregious expenses.
The takeaways included that the amount that Senator Paul considered waste, which was $114,514,631, boils down to over 14,000 taxpayers dollars being completely wasted. Things the federal government spent money on included funding Somali National Army ($76,321,379), blowing leaf blowers at lizards ($75,691), and funding Egyptian tourism (a whopping $18,000,000!).
Senator Paul typically keeps the holiday season cheery with his “Airing of Grievances” Festivus tweets (which will be coming this Sunday, despite the government shutdown), but this useful breakdown of where government funding is wasted was a welcome treat. I’m sure Senator Paul is rather happy with Criminal Justice Reform, the legalization of industrial hemp, and the U.S. pulling out of the Middle East, but it’ll still be worth seeing what roasts and gags he pulls up on his Twitter spree Sunday.
Check out the waste report here:
Bermansplaining 
