Rand Paul Uncovers $1.6 Trillion in Outrageous Government Waste

On December 23, 2025, Sen. Rand Paul released his 2025 “Festivus Report,” a blistering accounting of government waste that tallies $1,639,135,969,608 in what his office calls inappropriate or outrageous spending. The report, compiled by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, is the latest edition of Paul’s annual airing of grievances and comes with a sharp warning about the fiscal direction of the country. Working Americans should be furious that more than a trillion and a half dollars can be spent with so little oversight and so many absurd line items.

The list reads like a horror show of misplaced priorities: grants to promote insect consumption, taxpayer-funded influencer campaigns pushing COVID vaccines years after the emergency, and grotesque taxpayer-funded animal experiments including ferrets, beagles, and dogs dosed with narcotics. These are not theoretical abstractions; Paul’s team names programs and amounts, exposing a pattern of bureaucrats funding pet projects while everyday families tighten their belts. The spectacle should shame every legislator who voted for bloated budgets and pretended it was responsible governance.

Even more damning is that roughly $1.22 trillion of Paul’s $1.639 trillion number comes from interest payments on the national debt, a stark sign that Washington’s borrowing habit has become the biggest line item on the federal budget. Paul’s analysis shows the national debt ballooning toward the $40 trillion mark, with the government borrowing by the minute and stealing the future earnings of our children and grandchildren. This is the arithmetic of national decline: interest payments crowd out real priorities like defense, veterans, and infrastructure while bureaucrats keep raiding the till.

The political reality is ugly and bipartisan: too many Republicans talk about fiscal responsibility and then sign off on omnibus packages and backroom deals that leave taxpayers holding the bag. If the party that claims to stand for limited government won’t actually do the hard work of cutting, eliminating, and reforming, then voters must make them do it through primaries and at the ballot box. This is a red alert for conservatives who care about liberty and the economic future of our country.

The American remedy is simple though politically painful: stop funding vanity projects, demand real audits, slash bureaucratic missions back to core constitutional functions, and put a stop to taxpayer dollars being used for political advocacy and fringe research. That means courage in Congress and grassroots pressure from citizens who know what it means to earn a paycheck and pay taxes. We won’t get that change by whispering — we get it by organizing, voting, and refusing to accept the Washington status quo.

Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram brought the report’s specifics to viewers on The Story, ensuring ordinary Americans could see the grotesque details rather than the usual spin from Capitol Hill. Coverage like this matters because sunlight is the best disinfectant; when the people know where the money goes, they can hold the spenders accountable.