Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released his annual "Festivus" report Tuesday, calling out what he described as the most outrageous examples of wasteful federal spending — totaling more than $1.6 trillion over the past year.
The 2025 report estimated $1,639,135,969,608 in government waste, including massive interest payments on the national debt.
Paul, a longtime fiscal hawk and chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Washington's spending addiction continues unchecked.
"No matter how much taxpayer money Washington burns through, politicians can't help but demand more," Paul said in a statement accompanying the report.
Borrowing from the holiday tradition made famous on "Seinfeld," Paul framed the report as his annual "Airing of (Spending) Grievances."
"Fiscal responsibility may not be the most crowded road, but it's one I've walked year after year — and this holiday season will be no different," he said.
The report catalogs a long list of eyebrow-raising expenditures across multiple federal agencies. Among them: the Department of Health and Human Services spent $1.5 million on an "innovative multilevel strategy" using celebrity influencers to reduce drug use in so-called "Latinx" communities.
HHS also spent $1.9 million on a mobile phone-based intervention aimed at reducing childhood obesity among Latino families in Los Angeles County.
In addition, HHS spent more than $40 million paying social media influencers to promote COVID-19 vaccinations to racial and ethnic minority groups.
The State Department was also flagged for questionable spending, including $244,252 for a Pakistani organization to produce a cartoon teaching children how to fight climate change, along with $1.5 million to promote American films, television shows and video games overseas.
Perhaps the most bizarre spending highlighted in the report involved the Department of Veterans Affairs, which spent more than $1 million on experiments teaching teenage ferrets to binge drink alcohol.
Other animal-related projects included federal funding to dose dogs with cocaine and conduct controversial experiments on beagles, monkeys, and rats.
The National Science Foundation was cited for spending nearly $500,000 on a "Video Game Challenge" for children and more than $14.6 million to make monkeys play a video game inspired by "The Price Is Right."
Paul warned that the waste comes as the national debt has surged to nearly $40 trillion, just one year after crossing $36 trillion. Congress recently voted to raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion — the largest increase in history.
According to Paul's report, the federal government is now adding more than $6.5 billion in debt every day, borrowing roughly $75,000 every second.
"This year, I'm spotlighting a jaw-dropping amount of government waste — the kind that makes you wonder if anyone in Washington has ever heard the word 'priorities,'" Paul said.
While applauding recent efforts to rescind some foreign aid spending, Paul said those steps barely scratch the surface.
"It's just a drop in the bucket," he said, vowing to continue pressing for accountability and spending restraint.
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