Rand Paul’s 2024 Festivus Report is officially here, a compilation of Washington’s most offensive and indiscretionary spending, and it’ll make you madder than a wet hen.

First, all the empty buildings that were leased, maintained, and outfitted with furniture, for a cost to us of ten billion dollars (American Thinker contributor Jack Hellner often references this example of gross waste). These office buildings once served as spaces for federal bureaucratic use but when Covid hit, the shutdowns ensued, workers were sent home, and the government kept paying for what Paul calls “ghost towns” on the taxpayer “dime.” If you weren’t tracking, a massive portion of the federal workforce has yet to return to the office, and what’s more is that Joe Biden’s head bureaucrat at the Social Security Administration, commissioner Martin J. O’Malley, recently inked a deal to allow these workers to stay out of the office and on their couches through 2029, or all of President Trump’s presidency—so expect this outlay to continue.

Next, “Girl-Center Climate Action” in Brazil for $3 million… but does the federal government even know what a “girl” is? Not a chance—well, they obviously do, but they won’t admit it and instead will continue to perpetuate the farce, throwing the money away anyway. And, I guarantee this “climate action” doesn’t actually tackle a real problem Brazil is facing, like the utter environmental destruction caused by mass migration, spurred by Biden and Kamala Harris’s open border.

We taxpayers also funded a “disinformation index” for $330,000:

Historically, the largest purveyor of disinformation is the U.S. government, without question. And now, once again, the government has decided to position itself as the ultimate judge of what’s true and what’s not. The latest chapter in this ongoing saga involves the State Department channeling taxpayer dollars into efforts to silence non-liberal and conservative voices.

Through the National Endowment for Democracy—a private foundation bankrolled by the State Department—and the Global Engagement Center, $330,000 of your money was handed over to the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).

Conservative outlets were high risk, and leftist outlets were low risk—you get it.

Then, Biden and company squandered nearly $5 million for social media “influencers” to lobby the public into buying what Volodymyr Zelensky is selling—more Ukraine spending and death.

And this, one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard: seven million dollars on “magical” projects. Disappearing dollars has a double meaning—how dreadful.

What’s most distressing is that all this waste is just a drop in the bucket of Washington’s outlays—for an excellent analysis on the “unsolvable” budget problem, check back tomorrow on Christmas Day and see what Chuck Mason has to say on this, it’s a must-read (look for Mason’s piece on the article side).

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Image: Free image, Pixabay license.