I challenge those upset with Elon Musk and DOGE's spending cuts to explain how using American tax dollars for certain programs benefits hardworking Americans today. Democrats, this is your chance—if you can't support DOGE, perhaps it's best to step back and let it be.
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I challenge anyone who is upset by Elon Musk and DOGE for cutting wasteful spending to explain how using American tax dollars for the programs listed by Rep. Lankford in 2023 benefits hardworking people in the U.S. today.
Democrats, here’s your opportunity—but if you can’t support DOGE, maybe it’s best to stay out of the discussion and let DOGE do its thing.
Video Transcript AI Summary
American tax dollars funded various projects last year, raising questions about their effectiveness. Examples include grants for drag shows in Ecuador, a butterfly study in Germany, and a Sergeant Pepper's exhibit in Brooklyn. Other projects involved a smart toilet study, research on colonial Mexican soundscapes, and a study on seatbelts and helmets in Ghana (despite existing US data). Funding also went to a Yoko Ono art installation, a Napa Valley walking trail, a Hawaiian farmers market, the Metropolitan Opera's fire suppression system, and a study of Parisian butchers' private language. Additionally, taxpayer money supported a climate futurism conference using the parable of the sower and a study on influencing climate change skeptics. Nearly a billion dollars was spent on border facilities, averaging around $500 per person crossing illegally. Ultimately, the question remains: are these the best uses of taxpayer money?
Speaker 0: 50 different examples and just try to ask the question, is this the best way to be able to spend America's Dollars? And again, we've all got different perspectives and different ideas on it. I'm just asking a question. For instance, last year, the State Department did a grant to Ecuador to host 12 drag shows in Ecuador with American tax dollars. Now, may have different opinions in this room on drag shows.
I'm just asking the simple question. Is the best use of American tax dollars to actually fund drag shows in Ecuador with US tax dollars? I don't believe that it is. Last year, we actually did a different funding with through the state department that, was actually done. Actually, this was the National Science Foundation.
Excuse me. Strike that. It seems like a state department thing. National Science Foundation last year did a study of butterflies in Europe. So we funded with American taxpayer dollars a butterfly study in Germany where we paid a Swedish scientist to study butterflies in Germany.
I'm not real sure why American tax dollars that was the best use of that, but that was one of the grants that was done last year. Last year, there was also a, NEA grant that was done to set up a display in, Brooklyn for the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band, which by the way is not even an American band. And I'm not sure why we had to pay a federal tax dollars to be able to do that. My simple question is always, why are tax dollars being taken out of Oklahoma to be able to do that? Always popular, we had an almost, well, $350,000 grant to study smart toilets was one of the grants that we actually paid for with our federal tax dollars last year.
We also had a grant that was done studying colonial Mexican soundscapes. I'm sure colonial Mexican soundscapes are fascinating, but we paid for a researcher to travel to Mexico and then to be able to write a series about the sounds of colonial Mexico and how they could be used to be able to influence communities. We, last year, did a study on helmets and seat belts in Ghana To be able to study whether seat belts and helmets were effective for saving lives in Ghana. Can I just go and answer that question for free? Seat belts and helmets are a good idea.
They save lives. Free. I can go ahead and give you that advice. How do I know that? Because we've already spent millions of dollars in other studies here in The United States.
But instead, we spent money in Ghana studying helmets to see if they're actually a good idea there. And amazingly, they discovered, yes, they are. There was also a grant that was done last year. I've got to just walk this one through. This was at the Springfield Museum of Art in Missouri.
There was a grant to be on a display, an installation of the exhibit in the museum called Yoko Ono mend piece. Now let me just read this to you. It's a simple white room where shattered cups and saucers are placed on a table, and participants are asked to mend the fragments together using common household items like twine, glue, scissors, and tape, and the resulting works are displayed on nearby shelves as evidence of the power of collective action. Again, I'm not opposed to fixing broken saucers in a public place and displaying them. All I'm asking is why did Oklahomans work overtime last year to pay their tax bill to fund doing the Yoko Ono white room where people fixed broken saucers?
I I don't have a good answer for that yet, by the way. I'm still trying to be able to get that. If you like wine country, great. You help pay for it. One of the highest income areas in the world is Napa Valley, California.
1 of the highest income areas in the entire world. The good folks of Oklahoma helped pay for a wine pedestrian trail through Napa Valley because apparently, Napa Valley didn't have enough cash to be able to pay for the eight mile walking trail through wine country, some of the most expensive real estate in the entire world. So the taxpayers in Oklahoma had to pay for that wine country tour trail. If you like traveling to Hawaii, enjoy the trip. When you get there, if you go to a farmers market, you'll find out that you helped pay for that farmers market because the farmers market in Hawaii received $3,400,000 to be able to fund the farmers market.
If you go to New York City and pay a very high dollar ticket to get into a private location in the Metropolitan Opera to be able to watch the opera, you will feel safer, I'm sure, when you go to the Metropolitan Opera because almost three quarters of a million dollars was given to the Metropolitan Opera in New York to help them install a new fire suppression system with federal tax dollars. If you like traveling to Paris and you go to a butcher shop in Paris, you may be fascinated to know. Since the thirteenth century, apparently, butchers in Paris have come up with their own private language. It's like a super secret private language among butchers in Paris. Fascinating for the French to study, but unfortunately, the American taxpayers paid for a study of French butchers private language for fear that it is diminishing and fading away.
So the American tax dollars paid for this study in France to study the secret language of butchers in Paris. Can't tell you why. You may know the story of the let me see if I can pull this out. The parable of the sower. It's a very famous biblical story, the parable of the sower.
Well, this particular version of the parable of the sower was actually a little bit different. What your tax dollars paid for is actually an event that was done to teach climate futurism and to be able to use the parable of the sower from the Bible, but to reteach a new religion called Earthseed using the biblical story of the parable of the sower and talking about humanity's destiny to be able to leave Earth for other planets. It wasn't the writing of the book. It was a conference for teachers to make sure teachers know how to be able to teach this new version of the parable of the sower and about the religion of Earth seed to their kids. That was done with your tax dollars.
Not leaving Ghana alone, there was also a study that done in Ghana last year. Not only did one on seat belt studies and helmet studies in Ghana, we also did an interview project that was almost $200,000 in Ghana to interview taxicab drivers and truck drivers to ask them about how difficult driving has become with climate change. If it's harder to drive now in Ghana based on climate change, your tax dollars paid for that. And if you don't like that I'm discussing anything on climate change and you may disagree with that, Well, perfect. Because there was also a fund that was done with your tax dollars in the National Science Foundation to study how to influence people that disagree on the issue of climate change with a study that was done for $400,000 while the study on pluralistic ignorance gaps in climate change and to be able to determine how to speak to people as the study says who are ignorant on climate change and to be able to reeducate them on that.
So if you disagree on this issue, we're also studying how to be able to re educate you on this issue. Last year, we also spent $991,000,000 on soft sided facilities, those are called tents, along our border in Mexico. Now best estimates on this, there's about 2,000,000 people illegally across the border last year. So if you run the numbers on it, we spent somewhere around $500 a person on the tent facility they were processed through just to travel across the border. Listen.
We've got differences of opinion on lots of issues. I'm respectful of that. I understand that people of Oklahoma don't think like people in other areas of the country. I also understand not everybody in Oklahoma thinks the same way, and I'm respectful of that. But I've yet to find anyone that wants their tax dollars wasted.
People literally work overtime to be able to feed their families. They're working two and three jobs. And in April, when they pay their taxes, they want to know when to roads and infrastructure and national security. And what we reveal in Federal Fumbles is, yeah, some of that was done, but also some of it was done because we lacked oversight.
