The U.S. government reportedly allocated over $1 trillion in taxpayer money to controversial initiatives over the past year, with expenditures ranging from influencer campaigns in Ukraine to experimental studies involving animals.
This was highlighted in an annual ranking released by U.S. Senator Rand Paul, as reported by The Washington Times.
“Despite American taxpayers providing Kyiv with nearly $174 billion in aid and military support since the beginning of the [war in Ukraine – ed.], someone at the State Department thought it was a brilliant idea to allocate an additional $4.8 million for ‘Kyiv, Ukraine public relations – influencers,'” Paul stated.
“Apparently, what we really need in a war zone are more Instagram stories and TikTok dances,” he added, criticizing the State Department’s priorities. The senator called for a return to “serious diplomacy” instead of reliance on social media strategies.
Beyond Ukraine, Paul pointed to other government spending he deemed excessive or unnecessary. Nearly $11 million was reportedly spent on Pentagon experiments involving cats, including procedures where electrodes were inserted into their spinal cords to study neurological responses. According to Paul, the aim of these studies included research on inducing erections in cats.
Further, over $2 million was allocated by the Department of Agriculture to infect cats with COVID-19, resulting in their subsequent euthanasia. Another $1.5 million funded experiments that subjected kittens to severe motion sickness, aiming to explore treatments for dizziness in humans and understand the effects of spaceflight.
