Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) continued his annual tradition of celebrating “Festivus” just before the New Year. It’s his laundry list of government waste, the level of which is astounding and would be funny if it wasn’t so bleak.

“This will be the 10th year in a row that I’ve celebrated #Festivus with you. By celebrated I mean have a little fun at the expense of Washington. If we don’t laugh we might cry.” – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

Sen. Paul has spent a decade annually giving the American people a glimpse of the extreme and absurd waste committed by our government. This year he highlighted a few line items of the $482,276,543,907 partial budget.

I shall attempt a brief breakdown of this list for you, my reader. And I'll make a valiant attempt to contain my sarcasm - but some things are easier said than done, much like Biden’s “attempts” at economic wisdom and constraint. So, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?

Beginning his list, Sen. Paul says:

“I would air my grievance at Fauci again but I am trying to be festive… If I listed all of the things Fauci was wrong on…wow that guy is wrong a LOT.”

The waste at Fauci's National Institutes of Health, includes but is not limited to the following:

• $2.1 million used to encourage Ethiopians to wear shoes (I thought we all agreed “colonizing” and forcing cultures to conform to our norms was wrong, hmmm, just me?)

• $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine (*PETA anyone?)

• $1.1 million on “training mice to binge drink alcohol,” (okay, beginning to look like PETA should be on speed-dial)

• $519,000 using mice to study racial aggression…(okay PETA, I give up)

• $187,500 on “verifying that kids love their pets.” Oh phew! Cancel that call to PETA. I was beginning to grow concerned that the NIH was all about unethical animal experimentation. Glad to know my hard-earned dollars also helped them verify kids love pets…

But wait, there’s more!

• $3,000,000 to watch hamsters fight on steroids (okay, better get PETA back on the phone)

• $689,222 Studying the romance between parrots…Okay, I’m at a loss for words and quips and give up

Next up, millions spent on camouflage uniforms. Uniforms that did not work. From Paul's report:

“A Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report revealed that the Department of Defense (DOD) spent roughly $28 million on forest-patterned, “camouflage” uniforms to use in the deserts of Afghanistan. It was later found that the camouflage uniforms were “not based on an evaluation of its appropriateness for the Afghan environment.”

So we spend $28 MILLION on something we did not research?!?! Who’s bright idea was this?!

But at least we know they were well-caffeinated while making such an epic blunder, spending $202,000 at the Department of Defense (DOD) on Starbucks espresso machines.

I would love to say we’d reached an end to the comic yet horrific misuse of our money. But alas, the waste continues:

• $3 million for the construction of a Gandhi museum - Gandhi a now-known racist, rapist, and pedophile.

• $1,700,000,000 in maintaining 77,000 EMPTY federal buildings - what ever happened to small government?! Not to mention a homelessness solution? Or prime real estate to help pay off the national debt?

• $168,000,000 in helping illegal immigrants avoid deportation.

• $69,000,000 in overpayment of already terminated contracts.

• $140,000,000 in COVID relief funds… to build an 11,000 sq. ft spa.

While the list continues, my stomach and nerves can not. But suffice it to say, these certainly didn’t help our $2 trillion in national debt. Someone, please get Dave Ramsey elected to help with finances.

Paul wraps up this massive list by stating:

"Who’s to blame? One need not look further than the $3.5 trillion that the big government politicians in Congress spent on the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which ultimately does nothing to truly combat rising inflation rates. Worse, those same big spenders have just teamed up to pass a pork-laden $1.9 trillion omnibus spending package for 2023, released in the dead of night, and voted into law without anyone having read it."

I say farewell with one final quote from Sen. Rand Paul via Twitter and his version of the 12 Days of Christmas:

No budget was found, just mischief and debt/While the taxpayers hung their poor heads and wept.

* In no manner do I approve of or support PETA. However, as a Liberal Left's pet cause (see what I did there?) it astounds me that no knight in liberal armor has come to the rescue of these animals, that this isn’t just a blatant misuse of funds, but the abuse of God’s creatures with those funds.