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"Facts Matter" investigates complex issues based on the principles of traditional journalism: no spin, no favorites. We give you the facts—you decide the rest.
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For the past 11 years, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has released his annual “Festivus Report” to air grievances. While the name is a reference to a Seinfeld episode, the report itself is legitimate, detailing what he believes were some of the most egregious examples of the federal government wasting our tax dollars in the previous year.Since the start of the report, the dollar amount of the government “waste” he cites has grown significantly.In 2015, it was a little over a billion dollars. By 2019, it was $50 billion dollars. The latest report for 2025 showed that the figure hit a cool $1.639 trillion dollars. It’s worth mentioning that a huge portion of that total comes from interest payments on the national debt, which Senator Paul now includes in his overall tally. U.S. taxpayers paid $1.22 trillion dollars in interest just to service the national debt last year. That is significantly more than the Pentagon’s entire budget—and given the fact that that money is literally going to nothing other than interest, there’s a good case to be made to include that figure in the overall wasted spending report.Setting the interest payments aside, let’s go through nine of the most interesting examples of government waste from the report.
The U.S. Supreme Court just issued a decision that expands your right to appeal a federal prison sentence. Now, I’m sure most people reading this won’t ever become a federal prisoner—but, if you ever do, or if someone you know does, they will now have more rights given the fact that the court threw out a significant limit on federal prisoner appeals. Let’s go through the details together.
Measles, once thought to have been eradicated in the United States, is making a resurgence. The latest numbers from the CDC show that the number of cases reported in 2025 was the most in the past 33 years. Let’s examine where these outbreaks are happening, as well as why.
Included among the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4th of last year, is something called a Trump Account. This is an investment account that all American kids are eligible for—and very notably—any American child born after Jan. 1, 2025, is eligible to receive a $1000 thousand dollar deposit into their account.This is money that is not taxable; it’s not a loan, meaning you don’t have to pay it back, and also, because of the type of account that it is (an investment account that the child can’t touch until he’s 18) by the time your child is ready to take the money out, that $1,000 dollars might have grown substantially.If the market continued to have the same historical returns that it typically does—8 percent or 10 percent a year—it means that by the time your child is 18, they will have an account with as much as $6,000 in it. And by the time they’re 28, that account could have upwards of $28,000 dollars in it. Meaning, that this is a fairly good opportunity, and something that you should definitely not miss.
Today let’s discuss the FBI’s latest move: ditching the building they’ve used as their headquarters for the past 50 years for a new location.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been busy lately—recalling 29 U.S. ambassadors and senior diplomats from around the world, and issuing travel bans on some unlikely individuals. Let’s go through the details together.Episode Resources:🔵 Apply to Be Foreign Officer🔵 Ambassadors Recalled:https://bit.ly/4sfdUjfhttps://bit.ly/4pUz7NL🔵 EU Travel Ban:https://bit.ly/4qopCpKhttps://bit.ly/49hiBAchttps://bit.ly/4q1fIef
Episode Resources:🔵 PFAS Map:https://ept.ms/3K6I57P🔵 Full Study:https://ept.ms/3K60aTz🔵 Water Testing Resources:https://ept.ms/3K54Mt2https://ept.ms/3OouxXWhttps://ept.ms/44UOjj9https://ept.ms/3OlMKVS
Within the last three months, we already discussed: a Chinese woman, from Wuhan of all places, who was smuggling in roundworms through the mail—while studying at a lab in Michigan; a couple, boyfriend and girlfriend (both Chinese nationals, also working at that Michigan lab) who were smuggling in a dangerous fungus—a type of deadly fungus that can target crops; and now, the FBI just arrested another Chinese national—this one studying for his doctorate at Indiana University—and he was allegedly smuggling plasmid DNA derived from E. coli bacteria from China hidden inside women’s underwear. Let’s go through the details of this new case together.
On Dec. 10, it was announced that Google would pay nearly $700 million in settlements to people who paid to download apps from the Google Play Store.The announcement came in the form of a statement from multiple state attorneys general, who were collectively suing Google for anti-competitive practices.Google decided to settle this lawsuit—along with several other concessions—and, in so doing, will pay $700 million, the bulk of which will go to the actual users.Let’s go through the details of the case: what Google was accused of doing, how the settlement money will be disbursed, and how you can know if you qualify.
Today, let’s go through one of the best, most convincing Apple scams that’s out there right now. This one really has it all: a genuine request to authenticate your identity coming from Apple, real alerts being sent to your phone, computer, and tablet, as well as perfectly timed phone calls coming from “Apple Support.” This scam is good enough to be able to trick even extremely skeptical people—so let’s go through it together so that you don’t get scammed.
There have been quite a few developments recently on the vaccine front coming out of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory panel recommends delaying the first vaccine that’s given to many children, the Hepatitis B vaccine that’s administered pretty much as soon as they’re born.President Donald Trump signed an executive memo, starting the process of aligning the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule with other developed nations.West Virginia is flip-flopping on the question of whether to allow religious exemptions for school vaccines.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a case that would effectively allow Republicans to gain five seats in the House.On Dec. 4, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the redrawn election map for Texas will be allowed to stand.Here, we go through the backstory of the case, as well as what it means for the upcoming midterm elections.
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of videos online of people glazing Chinese electric vehicles. How good they are. How fast they are. How well designed and sleek they are. How luxurious the interiors are. How good they are on power. And even how good they are on price. Basically, how they knock it out of the park compared to American EVs.I’ve also seen quite a few business videos, of people criticizing the United States for not allowing Chinese TVs into our market—for fear it would collapse U.S. auto manufacturing.Now, that might all be true. However, there’s another factor to consider, which is that when you’re dealing with a Communist nation like China, nothing is ever as it seems. Case in point, Norway is now finding out that the Electric buses they’ve been buying from the Chinese have a backdoor—which allows them to be disabled remotely. i.e. by someone outside of Norway.Let’s dive into this particular story together, because through it a lot of different issues get exposed to the public including how government officials try to save money by buying from China, only to find out that the stuff they bought contains literal kill-switches that can be activated by Communist cadres in the CCP.
In a case that's going out in a whimper, rather than a bang, on Nov. 26, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges that were pending against President Donald Trump in Georgia were dropped. Let’s go through the history of the case, as well as the details of why the new Georgia prosecutor decided to drop it entirely.
In a bit of a surprising move, on Nov. 24, a federal judge dismissed the indictment against New York Attorney General Letitia James. However, the reason it was dismissed wasn’t based on the merits of the case, but rather a technicality—a technicality that can be fixed, and the indictment refiled. So let’s break it down.
The U.S. Navy is scrambling to retrieve two aircraft that fell into the South China Sea without explanation in October—and they’re trying to find them before the Chinese do.On the flip side, the decision on whether or not to sell Nvidia’s AI chips to China now sits on President Donald Trump’s desk. Until that’s settled, some people are allegedly getting creative with AI chip “exports.” Four men were recently arrested by the feds and accused of selling AI chips directly to China and making off with $4 million in the process. Let’s go through it all together.
Today we present updates on the 2 assassination attempts made on President Donald Trump’s life, as well as the hunting perch that was discovered near a Florida airport by Secret Service agents roughly a month and a half ago.
There have been a lot of developments recently on the Supreme Court front, including cases regarding mail-in ballots and whether they can be received after Election Day; gay marriage; whether transgender passports are a thing or not; as well as what the Supreme Court justices believe is the greatest threat facing America today. Let’s go through it all together.
In what would be one of the largest payouts in U.S. history, President Donald Trump announced his plan on Nov. 9 to take the huge sums of money collected from tariff revenue and use them to send $2,000 checks to most American households. Meaning that as long as you’re not a high-income earner, you stand to get a piece of the nearly $200 billion collected in tariffs to date.However, there are factors at play that may stop this plan entirely. Let’s go through what those factors are.
The mayor of a small town in Kansas is facing a slew of felony voter fraud charges after the state attorney general announced that the mayor, who is a Mexican national, has allegedly been voting in U.S. elections since 2022. Let’s go through the details together.
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The bastards doing the beagle experiment, then cutting their vocal cords so they don't have to listen to them yelp from pain, are just plain evil. One can only pray that this type of ongoing extreme pain, suffering, and endless torment await those who delivered these useless and needless experiments at the university of missouri. I thought this ended with disgraced fauci leaving, but apparently the funding continues under current appropriations. To hell with anyone voting for a bill with this.
*open borders
Financial education in this nation as with general primary education is abysmal. Perhaps these accounts will incentivise the individual desire for individual self-learing. Even in secondary education a college degree is equivalent to what a successful 8th grade education was 125 years ago. This program along with form 4547 likely wasn't remotely near what the founders had in mind, but neither was the extremely poor public education system complete with a cradle to grave nanny slave state.
So PFAS is more of an adverse impact threat than the enraged sun monster? Odd that the activist in gubmit would focus on the angry sun monster whose negligible impact is both intangible and subjective. Ahh, but it is easier to declare policy prescriptions to control the general population that the activist tyrants desire in any alleged efforts of countering chosen opaque metrics, rather than facing solid measurable parameters presented by a present threat that wouldn't support their policies.
finally.
Hidden kill switch code on high end products that may mean life or death in certain circumstances and the purchaser has absolutely no control over it. Seems about right nowadays.
#CNNFakeNews willing purveyors of the big lie!
The political ties of those top to bottom, who were responsible for losing the planes should be carefully scrutinized. Merry Thanksgiving!
There now appears to be a full rift among the high clerics in The Church of Climatology? Hope this divergence of doctrine doesn't damage the thoughts of the faithful too harshly or worse yet, draw the ire of the vengeful sun monster!
I thought the practice of using sharp objects to cure mental malidies was ended in the last century as lobotomies were ceased. Since those afflicted with the woke mind virus seized control of the American Psychiatric Ass. similar barbaric practices have resumed, padding the pockets of administrators and many in the "medical" community by enabling a repeat lifetime revenue stream, as long as these butchers can continue preying on innocent victims.
@4:55 public health minder: don't stick things where they don't belong to promote a healthy societal coexistence. I don't think I want to know how the dog became burdened with this plague.
ICE is being too nice!
@1:45 dimocrats require the continued presence of their strongest voting bloc, that is only preceded by AWFL's, to maintain their power structure. Their #DerangedProgramableAutomatons base led by #dimocrats will stop and nothing in defending any and all #criminalinvader's, no matter the violent offense, over victimized Americans who absolutely refuse to vote for dims and their fantasyland lunacy.
Communist cockroaches scurry when the light of truth is turned on. Thanks!
This is still happening, even after the last disaster?
At last a sensible approach. Let's see if there is a backbone for follow through.
I can't believe the state legislature officials exercising their grandiose display of power brokering forced her constituents to go unrepresented as long as they did. Disgusting and shameful.
Hundreds of thousands of these 'student' communists are still being welcomed into the nation by this administration with open arms. Our security apparatuses must be right everytime an instance like this occurs. It only takes one failure to end this nation as we have known it leading to mass domestic maiming and casualties. Are you faithful that these agencies will prevail everytime or is it time to revisit with our politicians who we allow to breach our borders and for what reasoning we should?
DOGE works!!! Who knew? particularly if your world view is informed only by partisan academics or #LeftWingLegacyMedia
The ratification of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution, another progressive era feat, destroyed what the founders intended the Senate to be, which was to represent the interests of the States in a balance of power of with the People and prior to that time, the restrained Federal gubmit. The 17th morphed that balance into just another popularity contest of name recognition presented to an inattentive electorate resulting in the result of an ever expanding tyrannical nanny state.