{"id":12172,"date":"2025-12-26T11:38:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T12:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/?p=12172"},"modified":"2025-12-29T18:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T18:39:07","slug":"binge-drinking-ferrets-and-dogs-on-cocaine-in-1-6trn-us-government-waste-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/26\/binge-drinking-ferrets-and-dogs-on-cocaine-in-1-6trn-us-government-waste-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Binge-drinking ferrets and dogs on cocaine in $1.6trn US \u2018government waste\u2019 list"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Rand Paul has published his annual Festivus report detailing wasteful spending and record debt payments<\/strong><\/p>\n

The US government has spent over $1.6 trillion this year on wasteful programs, such as teaching ferrets how to binge-drink alcohol and dosing dogs with cocaine, according to Senator Rand Paul’s latest annual ‘Festivus Report’.<\/p>\n

The Kentucky Republican’s 2025 edition<\/a> notes a total of $1,639,135,969,608 in waste, including $1.22 trillion spent on interest payments for the US national debt, which has reached nearly $40 trillion.<\/p>\n

Specific expenditures criticized include $2.1 million for researchers to collect saliva samples and survey partiers at EDM festivals in New York City about drug use. The National Institutes of Health spent $5.2 million to dose dogs with cocaine, while over $13.8 million funded experiments on beagles.<\/p>\n

Other highlighted projects involve $14.6 million to make monkeys play a ‘Price Is Right’-inspired video game, a process that involved screwing metal headposts into the animals’ skulls. The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $1 million on a study where teenage ferrets were forced to consume alcohol.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
US waste in Afghanistan revealed<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The report also targets diversity and foreign aid spending. It notes $3.3 million granted to Northwestern University to erect “scientific neighborhoods,”<\/em> install “safe space ambassadors,”<\/em> and form committees to “dismantle systemic racism.”<\/em> The State Department also spent $244,252 to produce a children’s television cartoon in Pakistan about climate change.<\/p>\n

Paul also criticized ineffective Covid-19-related spending, including over $40 million paid to social media influencers to promote vaccination among minority groups. USAID, which was dismantled by US President Donald Trump in the summer, also reportedly spent $54 million to collect and send bat coronavirus samples to Wuhan for gain-of-function experiments.<\/p>\n

He further noted that from a $7.5 billion allocation under former President Joe Biden to build 500,000 electric vehicle chargers nationwide, only 68 stations are actually operational.<\/p>\n

A number of the programs mentioned by Paul were approved under Biden. Paul noted that while Trump has since cut down on foreign spending, it’s still “just a drop in the bucket,”<\/em> accusing Congress of “shoveling money toward pet projects and special interests”<\/em> at the expense of American taxpayers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Rand Paul has published his annual Festivus report detailing wasteful spending and record debt payments The US government has spent over $1.6 trillion this year on wasteful programs, such as teaching ferrets how to binge-drink alcohol and dosing dogs with cocaine, according to Senator Rand Paul’s latest annual ‘Festivus…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12182,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12172\/revisions\/12182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}