Rand Paul’s annual Festivus report highlights $1 trillion in government spending

Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., 2024 Festivus report highlights over $1 trillion in government waste, including a Florida man stealing $8 million in COVID-19 relief funds to buy an island and other expenses like “ice-skating drag queens” and a $12 million Las Vegas pickleball complex. The report details that the National Institutes of Health spent over $1.5 million on “medieval-type experiments” on kittens, involving electroshock therapy and spinning apparatuses to test motion sickness.

Paul’s report also notes a nearly $11 million experiment by the Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to determine if electroshock therapy can cure erectile dysfunction and constipation. The report criticizes Congress for funding projects like pickleball complexes while American taxpayers face high prices and crippling interest rates.