We’re sinking into debt at an unprecedented rate and many of our elected officials in Washington seem to think that this isn’t something to be worried about.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is, though, and he has some things to say about it. Not only that, he wants to point out to his colleagues and the American people what it is we’re spending huge chunks of cash on that help drive us further and further into the hole.
“We’re rapidly approaching a milestone in our country, and it’s not a good one: $30 trillion in debt,” Paul said during a Senate floor speech.
Paul noted that we’re accumulating debt at about $2 million a minute, but we bring in $3.8 trillion a year in taxes and more in a month than the interest rate of $300 billion. It left Paul asking why we can’t pay the interest, but he already knew the answer. We’re overspending thanks to ridiculous expenditures and government promises.
Sen. @RandPaul: “We’re rapidly approaching $30 trillion in debt. […] We’re actually accumulating debt at the rate of over $2 million per minute.” pic.twitter.com/wPTejlxjoJ
— The Hill (@thehill) October 10, 2021
For instance, Paul highlights how the U.S. government dropped a million dollars just to see if Japanese quail become more sexually promiscuous to each other on cocaine…and that’s not the only study. Paul indicated that there is a myriad of studies we’re wasting money on just like that one and while it’s mostly Democrats voting for funding these kinds of studies, it’s also big government Republicans signing the checks.
Paul also revealed a $70 million we paid for a hotel to be built in Kabul that ended with the contractor running off with the money without building anything. There was also $48 million spent on a “‘natural gas’ gas station” in a remote area of Afghanistan.
Wasteful expenditures just like these are happening far more often than we’re told and have been happening for some time. Paul notes an “art” exhibit put up in Afghanistan where women were put in front of a urinal and asked to react to it.
A lot of the issue isn’t just odd expenditures. Most of it is chewed up by this idea that money grows on trees and debt doesn’t matter, as Paul highlighted according to FEE.org:
“People are saying we’re going to give you free college, free cars, free cell phones, free this, free that,” Paul said. “Everything in life will be free, you won’t have to work anymore. The problem is there are ramifications. Money doesn’t grow on trees… money’s got to come from somewhere.”
“Either we borrow it… we tax people for it, or we simply print the money,” he continued. “When the Federal Reserve prints the money, as we increase the money supply, the money we already have becomes worth less and less. It loses its purchasing power. This is the insidious tax of inflation. Inflation is a regressive tax… it affects the working class, lower income people, and those on fixed incomes, much worse.”
Paul warned that if we’re not more careful, “we’re going to spend this country into oblivion.”
He’s not wrong.
This article was originally published by RedState. Read the full article.
