by Frank Holmes, reporter
If you’re like most Americans, you’ve worked hard and saved money to give your loved ones Christmas presents, maybe even a nice trip, at the end of the year.
But for the government to save the hard-earned money it takes off the top of your paycheck—or even to stop wasting it on useless studies and nonsense—is too much to ask.
Sen. Rand Paul. R-K.Y., recently released a 14-page report documenting more than $230 million in waste on just eight federal projects.
Just a handful of boondoggles cost you a whopping $230,672,881…and there are tons more projects hidden in the dark, secret realms of the budget.
The Horn decided to look at the five biggest ways “our” politicians wasted taxpayer money last year.
Let’s count them down:
- A model United Nations program for school kids—in Afghanistan
The United States has spent 18 years, more than $1 trillion, and lost 4,432 lives in an endless war to punish the Taliban and bring democracy to Afghanistan. But we’re engaging in nation-building on a whole different level through this grant.
Our foreign representatives handed over $300,000 in foreign aid so that schools in Afghanistan can set up a model UN program.
“The State Department says the goal of the program is ‘[f]or Afghan youth to develop skills required for successful civic engagement (e.g., public speaking, critical thinking, leadership, team building, and in-depth research)’ —with an eye on ‘contribut[ing] to the strengthening of civil society’ in Afghanistan.”
But the UN is a den of corruption and theft…so why would anyone want to model a country on it?
To top matters off, the whole program is held in English—a language that only about six percent of Afghans speak!
This is one of the most outlandish programs the U.S. government has ever funded—and that’s a stiff competition.
“This is what should no longer be up for debate: using Americans’ taxpayer dollars to put on debate and Model U.N. tournaments in Afghanistan is a waste of Americans’ money,” Paul wrote.
- Hooking fish on nicotine
The National Institutes of Health dished out a cool $708,466 for a program to get zebrafish hooked on nicotine.
Giving drugs to fish?? That’s the plan.
The NIH says it wants to study fish cells and whether there’s a link between addiction and genetics.
“Everybody agrees that nicotine addiction is a problem,” Paul wrote. “But you have to be smoking something other than nicotine if you think the solution is to ship American tax dollars abroad to addict Zebrafish to nicotine.”
- The State Department bought a statue crafted by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan wrote some of the bestselling songs of the ’60s—and evidently, he’s a sculptor, too. Who knew?
The State Department did.
They cut him a check for $84,375 to put one of his sculptures in the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique.
As it turns out, every time a new international office opens, the government earmarks 0.5 percent of its budget for “art acquisition”…and the most the building costs, the more it can spend on art for its elite employees to gawk at.
As for the taxpayers’ money? It’s blowin’ in the wind.
- Helping Serbia serve up better cheese
Say cheese—no, wait, pay cheese.
USAID sent a mouth-watering $22 million in foreign aid to the Regional Center for Agricultural Development (RCAD) in Sjenica, Serbia, to help Serb farmers improve the quality of their cheese.
No one begrudges the Serbs a good chunk of cheddar, but why should U.S. taxpayers have to foot the bill? After all, we have enough of the stuff.
“In recent years on the domestic side, the U.S. has been experiencing a massive, historic cheese surplus, one that would eventually hit 1.4 billion pounds”—enough to wrap around the entire U.S. Capitol, Paul wrote.
The Kentucky senator said that “American dairy farmers dealing with the realities of this situation might be cheesed off to learn their government worked to strengthen competition and the European cheese market—using their own tax dollars to boot!”
- Studying whether there’s a link between drinking and ending up in the emergency room
Does drinking make people more likely to hurt themselves? Is the pope Catholic? Do bears….?
The federal government paid almost $5 million of your hard-earned dollars to find out the answer to one of these questions.
To nobody’s surprise the NIH study—which cost $4,658,865—found that the more people drink, the more likely they are to end up in the ER.
“Who would have thought that when it’s easier to get your hands on alcohol, the injury risk can increase, especially when it comes to vehicle-related injuries?” asked a disbelieving Paul.
What were they drinking when they authorized this study? Whatever it is, it might explain why Congress spends our money like drunken sailors.
It’s time to tie this ship to the dock and drop anchor.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”