The United States gives more in aid to foreign countries than the next 9 countries combined. Where exactly is that money going and how is it being spent?

America once prided itself in building great projects; now, those projects are hampered by bureaucracy and overregulation. It will have taken almost 25 years to permit and construct The Gross Reservoir expansion project in Colorado, expected to be completed in 2027. It took almost 20 years to permit the Kensington gold mine in Alaska. It

In 2023, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent: $759 Million on Workforce Diversity and Outreach $611,203 “Evaluating Microaggressions among Latinx Individuals with Obesity” $87,944 on the “Role of the estrous cycle and nucleus accumbens signaling on incubation of oxycodone craving in female rats” Sources: https://report.nih.gov/funding/categorical-spending#/… https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10725858… https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10475860

Last week, the Social Security Administration signed an agreement allowing 42,000 SSA workers to work from home until 2029 Source: https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-03/biden-administration-locks-in-wfh-policies-for-some-federal-staff-ahead-of-trump

In 2023 alone, illegal immigration cost taxpayers $150.7 billion. To put this in context with other costs (adjusted for inflation): World War I: $334 billion Apollo Space Program: $257 billion Manhattan Project: $30 billion Panama Canal: $15.2 billion Hoover Dam: $1 billion Sources: https://fairus.org/issue/publications-resources/fiscal-burden-illegal-immigration-united-states-taxpayers-2023… https://online.norwich.edu/online/about/resource-library/cost-us-wars-then-and-now… https://planetary.org/space-policy/cost-of-apollo… https://stimson.org/2024/americas-nuclear-weapons-quagmire/… https://panamacascoviejo.com/brief-history-of-the-panama-canal/… https://hoover.archives.gov/hoovers/hoover-dam

In 2024, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent $1.8 billion studying racism including: $125K on “Examining Anti-Racist Healing in Nature” $151K on “Perceived racism, cardiovascular disease risk, and neurocognitive aging” $516K on “Effects of Racism on Brain and Pathways to Health Disparities” Cost breakdown thread: https://t.co/KUBvQwOR8f

Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been fully designed Received $6.8 billion in federal funds Requesting $8 billion

An estimated $100 billion in estimated improper payments were made in the Medicare and Medicaid programs in Fiscal Year 2023. This is 43% of government-wide improper payments that year. Source: https://gao.gov/products/gao-24-107487

How the Government Spends your Tax Dollars: $28 million on licensing fees for a green “camouflage” pattern on Afghan National Army uniforms $2.5 million on a Super Bowl Ad for the Census $1.7 million for holograms of dead comedians $500,000 to build an IHOP in Washington, DC Source: https://rd.com/list/wasteful-government-spending-examples/

In FY2023, the U.S. Government spent $6.16. trillion while only bringing in $4.47 trillion. The last budget surplus was in 2001. This trend must be reversed, and we must balance the budget.