In 1997, the show Seinfeld popularized a satirical holiday called “Festivus.” One character, George Costanza, reluctantly shares this family tradition on December 23rd with his friends, which resulted from his father’s opposition to the commercialization of Christmas. One of the traditions of this made-up holiday is the “airing of the grievances,” in which the family sits around the table and shares the criticisms they have about everyone and everything. One Senator has made Festivus an annual tradition by criticizing the wasteful spending of the federal government. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) isn’t joking when he quotes Costanza’s father: “I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!”
Sen. Paul’s 11th annual “Festivus Report” outlines the most absurd programs that the federal government funded this year — although we must remember that the spending bills that funded these programs were passed under the Biden Administration.
Sen. Paul’s sense of humor makes the information a little easier to digest, but this pattern of spending is no laughing matter. The current national debt has toppled $38.4 trillion — an amount that is difficult for any person to comprehend. This number does not include the interest payments on the debt. The U.S. Government owes a record-high $1.2 trillion in interest. This is the third largest federal expense — just under Social Security and Medicare. With soaring inflation, high taxes, and out-of-control political overspending, it will take years to get any kind of fiscal sanity back.
Shockingly, payments to perpetuate COVID-era policies are still dominating the lion’s share of wasteful spending. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gave the National Urban League $20.9 million to push vaccines to inner-city residents. They wanted to turn barber shops and churches into pop-up vaccination sites and ranked these areas based on their ability to be influenced to get vaccines. UnidosUS was given the same amount of money to reach the Latino community in similar ways.
DOGE reported that public schools were able to spend over $200 billion of COVID-relief funds with little oversight. Some schools spent the money on rooms at Caesar’s Palace, renting major league baseball stadiums, and ice cream trucks. Other expenses included Christmas decorations, Xboxes, and turf for sports fields.
Even though the pandemic is over, that didn’t stop Dr. Fauci’s National Institutes of Health from trying to cook up a new virus. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) gave $54 million to EcoHealth Alliance to conduct gain-of-function research by collecting bat coronaviruses and transporting them to labs. This funding continued through 2024.
Of course, the Leftist bureaucracy pushed “woke” policies into every facet they could find even making vegetables more “inclusive”. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) gave the Farm Training Collective NYC $141,517 to create a food system for “low-income QT BIPOC communities.” They define that jumble of letters as anyone who fits under the LGBT umbrella, including people of color.
Federal agencies had a field day experimenting with heavy drugs and alcohol — not on themselves (that we know of) but on animals. The same $2 million project that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded in 2022, which involved injecting cocaine into puppies, was extended to another $1.7 million despite the outrage. Similarly, the Department of Veterans Affairs used $1 million to force ferrets to binge drink alcohol until they died. They intended to study the effects on the brain to further understand stress, traumatic brain injuries, addiction, and more. Results are still to be determined.
Speaking of disgusting practices on animals, the Department of Defense spent over $2.8 million on implanting human bone marrow, liver, and thymus tissue in mice harvested from aborted babies. Despite the first Trump administration’s policy outlawing these types of experiments, the Biden administration reinstated it.
The Left wouldn’t be the Left without climate change policies. The Department of State sent $244,252 to an organization in Islamabad, Pakistan, to create a children’s show raising “environmental awareness.” Perhaps kids can watch this cartoon while eating their bug-based cereal. The National Science Foundation has spent nearly $2.5 million on organizations that engage in bug farming and biomanufacturing to produce insect-based food products for humans and animals.
If a bug-based diet doesn’t help you shed the pounds you put on over the holidays, perhaps a taxpayer-funded push notification on your cell phone will help. HHS awarded $1.9 million to Los Angeles County to send messages to 260 WIC participating families, reminding them to make healthy choices. As Sen. Paul says, “…taxpayers are shelling out millions to see if a mobile phone can raise your child better than you can.”
If you have one more eye roll left in you, take a look at the $3.3 million grant given to Northwestern University. Despite the university’s $14 billion endowment, it gladly accepts funds from taxpayers to implement “scientific neighborhoods” and “safe space ambassadors” to achieve “inclusive excellence.” These vague words are coded in DEI programs. Fortunately, the Trump administration has put an end to this nonsense.
While this report is based on fiscal year 2025 numbers, much of it passed before President Trump came into office, it shows that the waste runs deep in the federal government. With the efforts from the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency), the recission package, and current spending bills to make cuts to wasteful programs, we hope that future Festivus Reports will be a bit leaner. However, Congress must do its job of passing appropriations bills in regular order instead of simply moving forward continuing resolutions that repeat past years’ spending priorities. Eagle Forum will give you opportunities to make your voice heard on these fiscal issues. Sign up for our emails and alerts so that you can be informed on the latest efforts of Congress and the Trump administration.
