SEE IT: GOP Sen. Joni Ernst highlights list of ridiculous government waste

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Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa posted an entire thread on X Tuesday afternoon about just some of the massive waste included in government spending.

This comes as the U.S. Senate is currently debating a multi-billion “clawback” package which would yank back about $9 billion in previously-approved funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.

Ernst wrote:

Accountability has been lacking in Washington – especially at USAID and public broadcasting. My oversight has exposed waste, fraud, and abuse nearly too insane to believe that must be ended by Congress through the *FIRST* rescissions package. 👇

Let’s start with USAID.

$203,000 designed to alleviate economic distress in Ukraine was used to send models and designers on junkets to New York City and Fashion Weeks in London and Paris.

Sadly, that was just the tip of the iceberg of Ukraine aid waste.

$148,000 was given to a pickle maker, a dog collar manufacturer fetched $300,000, and a custom carpet manufacturer raked in $2 million.

USAID’s world tour of waste was just getting started. $2 million was used to promote tourism in Lebanon, despite the State Department actively warning against traveling to the nation due to terrorism and kidnapping.

As if that was not bad enough, $20 million was awarded to Sesame Workshop, which produces Sesame Street, to create content for Iraq. $20 million for Baghdad Elmo is absurd!

As if funding entertainment for foreign nations was not bad enough, USAID funded the collection of coronaviruses to be sent to none other than the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Yes, your tax dollars funded research that experts say may have produced the COVID-19 virus.

There are foreign assistance programs that do advance American interests and they are now being administered under the watchful eye of @SecRubio.

This includes projects previously supported by USAID that care for orphans and people living with HIV.

Imagine how much more good work like this could be done with the dollars that instead financed fashion shows, supported Sesame Street programs in Iraq, or ended up in China’s Wuhan Institute.

On the topic of waste, let’s talk about public broadcasting. NPR and PBS have a right to say whatever they want, but they don’t have a right to force hardworking Americans to pay for their political propaganda being masked as a public service.

Congress needs to get serious about the $37 trillion debt and pass a rescissions bill every week.

There is no better place to start than clear waste, fraud, and abuse.

I will continue working to make DOGE a lifestyle and put taxpayers first in Washington.

WATCH the video below of a clip from a speech on the Senate floor by Ernst.

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