Democrats have always enjoyed wasteful spending, but Sen. Rand Paul arrived on the Senate floor Friday morning wanting to prove just how ridiculous some of the taxpayer-funded research is at some of the federal agencies, particularly at the National Science Foundation.
Sen. Paul delivered a 32-minute-speech with colorful poster boards opposing some of the science and technology research the bipartisan Endless Frontier Act wants to expand on. They claimed that the proponents of the research would help the U.S counter China, but Paul pointed to the $28 trillion national debt as a reason to cut it down. He said that the government-funded projects were nothing more than ‘wasteful spending’ and an abuse of money.
Some of the specific research projects include $357,000 to study “Cocaine and Risky Sex Habits of Quail” and $1.6 million for researching “Lizards on a Treadmill.” He said that after one and a half million taxpayer dollars, the NSF had lizards walk on a treadmill while taking x-rays of their joints and still couldn’t conclude any answers. They said they needed more taxpayer money before they could report their research.
He also went after the National Institute of Health for spending $2 million to see if using a hot tub can lower stress and $3 million to study whether or not humans will eat enough ants to keep the globe from warming. “NSF sent $1.3 million to study making insects into animal feed. On top of that, we spent nearly $3 million to study if humans would eat insects as a means to combat climate change. That’s $4 million on eating insects,” Sen. Paul tweeted.
Another study reports that the National Science Foundation spent nearly $700,000 from an autism research grant to figure out whether astronaut Neil Armstrong used the word “a” when he landed on the moon in 1969 in his famous “one giant leap for mankind” quote.
“I don’t think this bill makes us stronger. In fact, I think the Chinese sit back … and laugh at America thinking we’re going to be stronger by borrowing more money from China. So I just don’t think it makes us any stronger at all. I think it makes us weaker. It would be one thing if it weren’t being so horribly wasted,” Paul said.
Sen. Mike Lee shared concerns with Paul that more Americans should be alarmed by their taxpayer dollars going to these specific studies and the amount of money they request. Paul adds that the government always votes for more money, never less. He said it happens routinely and insisted on more people pointing out the ‘waste and abuse of money’ that goes on.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that the final vote on the research legislation will be pushed until after the Memorial Day holiday. The Senate will then move to a vote on a “9/11-style” commission to investigate the Capitol riot.
Paul, along with many others, has pointed out that this isn’t a Democrat or Republican thing, but a Big Government thing. Even the well-meaning politicians continue to allow the waste of the taxpayers’ dollar because they are afraid that clamping down on anything means losing votes. And votes are the most important thing to career politicians. Time to enact term limits.
