=11ptDuring this season, let us also pause and remember our brave men and women serving our country and protecting our freedom at home and abroad. We thank you and your families for the sacrifices you make.=11pt May your holiday be filled with love and your New Year rich with God’s blessings. 
 
From our family to yours, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays! 
 
You can find my latest update below!
 
=12ptDr. Rand Paul Fights to Reign in $1.7 Trillion, 4,000+ Page Pelosi-Schumer End-of-Year Spending Bill
 
In the dead of the night, 1:23AM ET to be exact, Congress released its 4,155-page end-of-year spending bill loaded with wasteful pet projects and Big Government priorities, totaling in at a whopping $1.7 trillion.
 
Last Tuesday, after Big Government Democrats and Republicans got together to put the finishing touches on their boondoggle spending bill, I once again joined a group of five likeminded Senators in expressing opposition to passing their foolish agenda.This type of situation happens every year. Congress passes a spending bill that has no budget. It’s typically a spending bill in which everything is glommed together in one. It’s a spending bill that’s thousands of pages long, and no one will ever read it. No one will have encompassed the entire bill, and it’s given with only hours or days before we’re supposed to pass it.
 
And there’s always a reversal of blame. The blame isn’t attached to the people who, frankly, I wouldn't put in charge of running a minute mart because of their lack of business sense. It’s not attached to the people who cobbled together a multi-thousand-page bill in the dead of night, didn't show it to anyone and put it forward.
 
They will say if you vote ‘no,’ or offer any hold up, you are to blame for shutting down the government. I, however, am not for shutting down the government, but am for spending less money and accumulating less debt.
 
On Tuesday, I also spoke on the Senate floor and called for the Senate to abide by its own rules which require spending to be offset by equal cuts from somewhere else. Republicans and Democrats are yet again waiving these rules and allowing the over 4,000 pages of spending to become debt instead of being offset by spending cuts.I know the American people don't want this. You are already paying for it through inflation and adding $1 trillion to the deficit will only make it worse and fuel the fires that are consuming your wages and consuming your retirement plans. It's a terrible system. Someone needs to stand up, and as your Senator I’m proud to say no more to this terrible, awful, no-good way to run government.
 
You can watch the press conference I hosted with Senators Rick Scott (R-FL), Mike Lee (R-UT), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Mike Braun (R-IN) last Tuesday HERE and watch my floor remarks HERE.
 
=12ptDr. Rand Paul Releases 2022 Festivus Report on Government Waste
 
Today, I released my 2022 “Festivus” Report, totaling $482,276,543,907 in government waste.
 
This marks my eighth edition of the Festivus Report as I continue working to alert the American people to how their federal government uses their hard-earned money. 
Some of the highlights include the National Institutes of Health spending $2.3 million injecting beagle puppies with cocaine, and separately spending $187,500 to verify that kids love their pets. The Department of Health and Human Services spent $689,222 to study romance between parrots, the NIH funded a $3 million annual research project to watch hamsters on steroids fight, and the U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on Super Bowl Ads.That’s just a preview of what your government has wasted lately, and there are plenty more egregious items in my full report so be sure to read it HERE.