Sen. Rand Paul is continuing to expose the rampant waste of tax dollars by our government agencies. In a special Fall edition of his Waste Report, the Kentucky senator highlights some of the most wasteful expenditures of our federal government, including a half-a-million-dollar toilet nobody could use and a $22 million project to bring Serbian cheeses up to international standards.
"Once again, The Waste Report takes a closer look at just some of what the federal government is doing with the American people’s hard-earned money, this time including stories of it continuing to turn over so many taxpayer dollars to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, funding research that involves hooking Zebrafish on nicotine, buying textbooks for Afghan students that are subpar or sitting in warehouses, and more in a list that totals over $230 million," states a press release from Sen. Paul's office.
The Waste Report takes a hard look at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) and the myriad of ways in which they blow through taxpayer money, including some $400,000 on a public relations campaign to entice back riders who are abandoning Metro in droves. Ridership on Metro is the lowest it's been in nearly 20 years.
Metro spent at least a half-a-million dollars maintaining a self-cleaning toilet nobody could use from 2017 to early 2019. The number may be higher but Metro isn't very good at keeping invoices. The monstrosity of a toilet sat at the Huntington Metro Station from 2003 to 2017. When the toilet did work, it was not user-friendly. The waste of space was removed from the Huntington Station earlier this year and its current whereabouts are not immediately known.
The State Department has also outdone itself this year, spending $300,000 on debate and Model United Nations competitions in Afghanistan. The department also spent $84,375.61 on an original Bob Dylan sculpture for our embassy in Mozambique.
Not to be outdone, the National Institutes of Health plans on spending around $708,466 to get Zebrafish hooked on Nicotine. The Waste Report notes, "Researchers reported to NIH that they are using your money in part 'to identify genes affecting vulnerability to addiction by screening lines of mutagenized zebrafish for core behaviors associated with addiction: sensitivity to drug reward and impulsivity.'" Aren't there a lot of people already addicted to Nicotine these researchers could study?
And this one really hurts. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is spending up to $16,000,000 to improve schools in Egypt, because, you know, American public schools already have everything they need, like extra security for mass shootings. USAID also spent $33,921,175 to supply textbooks, many of which are sitting in warehouses, to students in Afghanistan.
Then there's USAID's $22,000,000 crucial mission to bring Serbian cheeses up to international standards. The Waste Report notes that American dairy farmers are probably not too happy to learn that their tax dollars are being used to strengthen the foreign competition, at a time when the United States is experiencing a "massive, historic cheese surplus."
So keep working hard U.S. taxpayers. Serbian dairy farmers are depending on you.
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