Category: Rand paul
Cocaine dogs and TikTok therapy: Rand Paul roasts elites in annual Festivus Report
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is ringing in the New Year with his annual Festivus Report, highlighting all the government’s pet projects taxpayers have been funding.
Paul’s 11th annual waste report totaled up a whopping $1.6 trillion, including $1.22 trillion in interest payments on the $38.5 trillion national debt.
‘I hope you’re horrified.’
“No matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can’t help but demand more,” Paul said in a statement.
“Fiscal responsibility may not be the most crowded road, but it’s one I’ve walked year after year — and this holiday season will be no different. So before we get to the Feats of Strength, it’s time for my Airing of (Spending) Grievances.”
RELATED: The 5 best Christmas decorations in recent White House history
Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images
The report features a roundup of the government’s most egregious spending, including experiments dosing dogs with cocaine and teaching ferrets how to binge-drink. One program taught monkeys how to play a video game inspired by “The Price Is Right” for a whopping $14.6 million.
Some spending was directed toward actual people, not just pets. One program from the Department of Health and Human Services spent $1.5 million on an “innovative multilevel strategy” to reduce drug use in “Latinx” communities by using influencers and celebrities in TikTok campaigns, which the report dubbed “TikTok therapy.” Other programs spent $2 million on “gender-affirming care” in Guatemala through USAID, as well as $2.8 million in DOD grants for implanting humanized mice with aborted fetal tissue.
Other funds were just misused entirely, with nearly $200 billion in COVID funds for schools being wasted on excessive amenities like ice cream trucks, rooms at Caesar’s Palace, and renting out MLB stadiums.
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Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“That’s all for today, folks,” Paul said in a post on X. “I hope you’re horrified — I mean, I hope you enjoyed it. The Festivus holiday must come to an end. If only the programs we write about would also come to an end.”
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Prominent Virologist Warned Intelligence Community COVID-19 Could Have Leaked From Wuhan Lab. Then He Met With Fauci and Changed His Tune.
A prominent U.S. virologist who collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology before the COVID-19 pandemic privately informed the U.S. intelligence community in January 2020 that the Chinese lab may be responsible for the outbreak. But in his public remarks to congressional staffers one month later—and after meeting with former White House health adviser Anthony Fauci—the researcher stayed mum about the Wuhan lab and lent credence to the discredited wet market theory.
The post Prominent Virologist Warned Intelligence Community COVID-19 Could Have Leaked From Wuhan Lab. Then He Met With Fauci and Changed His Tune. appeared first on .
Democrat-induced shutdown poised to break record as key programs lapse
The Democrat-induced government shutdown is set to break the record for the longest shutdown in history.
Senate Democrats blocked the GOP’s clean funding resolution on September 30, initiating the government shutdown on October 1. Over a month has passed since then, with the shutdown inching toward the 35-day record after over a dozen failed Senate votes.
‘REPUBLICANS, BE TOUGH AND SMART!’
If this streak of failed votes continues through midnight Wednesday as expected, the government shutdown will have surpassed the previous record-holding 35-day shutdown from President Donald Trump’s first term.
Although neither party has indicated that a deal is on the horizon, Trump has urged Republicans to deploy the nuclear option to bring the shutdown to a close.
RELATED: Trump urges Senate to deploy the ‘Nuclear Option’ on filibuster
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, NOT JUST FOR THE SHUTDOWN, BUT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “WE WILL GET ALL OF OUR COMMON SENSE POLICIES APPROVED (VOTER ID, ANYONE?) AND MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! REMEMBER, THE DEMOCRATS WILL DO IT IMMEDIATELY, AS SOON AS THEY GET THE CHANCE. OUR DOING IT WILL NOT GIVE THEM THE CHANCE.”
“REPUBLICANS, BE TOUGH AND SMART! THE DEMS ARE CRAZED LUNATICS, THEY WILL NOT OPEN UP OUR COUNTRY NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IRREPARABLY HARMED!”
Trump’s calls to eliminate the filibuster would allow Republicans to pass their funding bill with a simple majority as opposed to the 60-vote threshold currently in place. Only three Democrats have consistently crossed the aisle and voted with Republicans to reopen the government, falling short of the 60 votes needed.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, an institutionalist, has always been against eliminating the filibuster. Despite pressure from the president, Thune maintains that his “position on the importance of the legislative filibuster is unchanged.”
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
While Congress shows no signs of progress, millions of Americans lost key government benefits like food assistance programs that lapsed over the weekend. Programs like SNAP affect citizens across the country, but Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins is taking the opportunity to clean house, ensuring illegal aliens are not taking advantage of the program.
“I’m glad to see the Trump administration is working to get to the bottom of why 41 million people are on SNAP and why this program exploded on Joe Biden’s watch,” said Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has repeatedly voted with Democrats against the funding bill, in a post on X. “It’s time to root out the waste, fraud, and abuse.”
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