Joni Ernst Profile picture
Feb 3 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
🧵From funneling tax dollars to risky research in Wuhan to sending Ukrainians to Paris Fashion Week, USAID is one of the worst offenders of waste in Washington… all around the world. 🌎

This is why @POTUS, @DOGE, and @elonmusk are ending the nonsense. 👇
Despite the fact that Moroccans have been making pottery for thousands of years, USAID spent more than $2 million for Moroccan pottery classes and promotion.

The idea clearly wasn't fully formed, because the translator they hired didn't even speak English.
USAID spends money like it’s going out of fashion, literally. 

Trade assistance to Ukraine paid for models and designers to take trips to New York City, London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and South by Southwest in Austin.
Vacations were top of mind clearly for USAID.

The agency spent $2 million promoting tourism to Lebanon, a nation the State Department warns against traveling to “due to crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, unexploded landmines, and the risk of armed conflict.”
If you think that is bad, it gets much worse.

USAID funneled nearly $1 million into batty research on coronaviruses at China’s infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology, which the CIA admits was the likely source of COVID-19.
During the height of the war in Afghanistan, USAID spent millions of dollars to help Afghans grow crops instead of opium.

The results: opium poppy cultivation across the country nearly doubled, according to the UN.
USAID asked, “Can you tell me how to get how to get to Sesame Street?” and ended up in Iraq.

USAID authorized a whopping $20 million to create a Sesame Street in Iraq.
USAID has long been a reckless, out-of-control, unaccountable rogue agency.
More than $9 million of USAID’s “humanitarian aid” intended to feed civilians in Syria ended up in the hands of violent terrorists, including an affiliate of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
USAID has failed to put the American people first and routinely tried to cloak its actions in secrecy.

Those days are over.

@DOGE is making the agency accountable to taxpayers for every cent of tax dollars being sent overseas to stop the wasteful and dangerous spending.

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More from @SenJoniErnst

Jan 17
🧵Washington's end of year use-it-or-lose-it approach encourages waste by binge-buying bureaucrats.

In Sept 2024, the Pentagon went on its largest spending spree since 2008 (reminder: in ‘08 America was fighting 2 wars).

What did they spend tax dollars on?

Glad you asked.👇 Image
Who needs a 5-star restaurant when you can dine at Bistro Le Taxpayer @DeptofDefense.

In September alone, it spent $6.1 million on lobster tail, $16.6 million on ribeye steak, $6.4 million on salmon, and $407,000 on Alaskan king crab!
Fear not, fine dining is not limited to the main course.

$117,787 was spent to deliver hot fresh donuts and another $113,230 was used to order ice cream 79 different times!
Read 7 tweets
Dec 5, 2024
🧵After nearly two years of investigating telework abuse, I unveiled my report showing how broken the bureaucracy in DC is.

Here is my plan to work with @elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, and the Trump admin to get the federal workforce working for the people and save tax dollars.👇 Image
First, just how prevalent is telework in Washington?

❗️90% of bureaucrats telework
❗️6% of bureaucrats show up 5 days a week
❗️Nearly 33% of employees are entirely remote
 
Why is this a problem?
Well, these individuals have been caught doing just about everything during the workday except working.
 
My investigations have exposed bureaucrats playing golf, sitting in jail, relaxing in a bubble bath, and taking extended beach vacations.
 
All while on the clock. Image
Read 12 tweets
Nov 25, 2024
🧵We can eliminate more than $2 trillion of waste in Washington in 22 easy steps.
 
Here is how @elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, and @DOGE can begin to trim the fat and #makeemsqueal. 👇
1. Ghost Workers 👻
 
We are spending $15.7 billion a year on underutilized buildings.

Many are vacant!

Bureaucrats refuse to show up to work, so why are we paying for empty buildings?
2. Audit the IRS
 
Hundreds of IRS agents owe millions in back taxes.

150,000 federal employees owe $1.5 billion in back taxes government-wide.

After we are done, these numbers need to be zero.
Read 24 tweets
Nov 23, 2024
🧵😸Happy Caturday!
 
What is Caturday?

A pawesome time to examine how, just like cats, waste in Washington has nine lives.

Here are nine examples of wasteful spending by the federal government studying our feline friends that are purrfect for @DOGE to cut. Image
Starting off we have the $6.8 million question:
 
What food, toys, scents, and humans do cats enjoy the most?

Good news: they like tuna, catnip, playing with humans, and moving toys.

Bad news: we aren't within a whisker of all the waste.
You can't forget about the $178,000 "catwalk" study.
 
@NIH put 10 cats on a catwalk and another on a treadmill to study how they balance.
 
Why tax dollars were spent on this is purrplexing.
Read 11 tweets
Jul 29, 2024
🚨The spirit of 1776 is still alive and well with a tax revolt happening right now at the most unlikely of places in Washington, the IRS.

My audit of the IRS reveals more than 5,800 IRS and contractor employees owe nearly $50 million in overdue taxes.

And it only gets worse...
While the IRS warns tax evasion is a serious crime punishable by imprisonment, fines, and civil penalties, and even though the IRS has the authority to fire these tax cheats - just 20 of the 5,800 IRS tax evaders were fired.
My audit also found 282 employees rehired by the IRS were known to have multiple conduct issues including criminal and sexual misconduct and tax evasion.
Read 5 tweets

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