Overview
- Paul’s 11th annual tally lists $1,639,135,969,608 in alleged waste for 2025, including $1.22 trillion he attributes to interest payments on the national debt.
- Animal experiments figure prominently, including about $5 million dosing dogs with cocaine, more than $1 million to make teenaged ferrets binge drink, and $14.6 million for monkeys fitted with headposts to play a Price Is Right–style game.
- HHS spending cited in the report includes more than $40 million for COVID-19 vaccine influencer campaigns targeting minority groups and $1.5 million for celebrity-led anti-drug messaging in “Latinx” communities.
- The report also highlights smaller grants such as $2.1 million to collect saliva and survey partygoers at New York City EDM events, $3.3 million for Northwestern University campus programs, and a $244,252 State Department–funded climate cartoon in Pakistan.
- Large programs are criticized for weak delivery, with the $7.5 billion EV-charger initiative flagged for limited operational stations to date, and the document credits White Coat Waste Project for several animal-research findings as media coverage notes no detailed agency rebuttals.