Cats on treadmills? America has sent over $1.3 billion to Russia, China for bizarre projects

By
SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR
-
18
View of the Moscow Kremlin, the Kremlin Embankment, the Moskva River with ice floes floating on it on a winter evening. Moscow, Russia

By CASEY HARPER | THE CENTER SQUARE

The U.S. sent over $1.3 billion to China and Russia since 2017, according to a new analysis that details a string of problematic spending projects funded by taxpayers.

The watchdog group, Open the Books, and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, released the analysis, which detailed an array of examples they deemed troubling “including $770,466 to a state-run lab in Russia to put cats on treadmills” and another project for nearly $100,000 for gender equality cartoons.

“It is gravely concerning that no one in Washington can actually account for millions sent to Russia and China for pointless projects,” Ernst said. “But I have the receipts.”

Ernst and Open The Books found at least $490 million in taxpayer dollars paid to groups in China and another $870 million paid to organizations in Russia since 2017 via U.S. grants and contracts.

Ernst introduced legislation last week to require all taxpayer dollars sent to Russia and China be tracked and publicly disclosed. A House version of the Tracking Receipts to Adversarial Countries for Knowledge of Spending (TRACKS) Act was introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc.

Gallagher said “we know the federal government has wasted more than one billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars on our adversaries.”

“This is crazy, but to make matters worse, this may only be the tip of the iceberg,” he added.

Adam Andrzejewski, CEO & founder of OpenTheBooks.com, has echoed the call for more transparency of government spending. Often, it can take years to find out where federal funds went and how they were used.

“Holding firms responsible to publicly report where and how they use their grants and contract awards can deputize private citizens and make them part of the solution,” he said.

Here are a list of examples of federal spending projects found by the analysis:

  • $58.7 million from Department of State, including $96,875 for gender equality through exhibition of New Yorker magazine cartoons
  • $51.6 million from Department of Defense, including $6 million for tech support of the military “deployment and distribution command” software – delivering equipment and supplies anywhere our military is deployed, even though the DOD Inspector General warned the Pentagon about using Chinese IT companies on DOD projects
  • $4.7 million to a Russian company for health insurance that was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022
  • $4.2 million from Health and Human Services, including $770,466 to a state-run lab in Russia to put cats on treadmills
  • $2.4 million on Russian alcohol and addiction research
  • $2 million funneled to China’s state-run Wuhan Institute of Virology to conduct dangerous experiments on bat coronaviruses and transgenic mice
  • $1.6 million to Chinese companies from National School Lunch Program, which means taxpayer dollars from the CARES Act meant for American farmers went to Chinese agriculture exporters
  • $1.45 million for pandemic virus tracking in Russia
  • Subsidies for the Russian space program by funding the Russia Space Agency and vendors

18 COMMENTS

  1. As these accounting audits become more publicly disclosed, don’t be surprised to see some wild expenditures that only serve the interests of very few, and potentially those with political connections as well as their Staff Members, Family, and Friends. Look deeply into those LLC’s and the associated memberships to those LLC’s! While certainly and most likely, steel yourselves for the unethical truths about to be discovered!!!

  4. It appears our Treasury is just as wide open and unsupervised as our southern border. Only difference is that the flow is outbound in the treasury while it’s all inbound at the border.

  7. “Well, yeah…….but Dan Sullivan spent a million dollars on an accounting program that sucked.”
    -Frank Rast (probably)

    “So that’s nothing compared to what Trump spent on the stupid wall…”
    -CMAN (probably)

    “I like cats.”
    -Maureen (most likely)

    • “Government secrecy, coercion and suppression of ‘misinformation’ is necessary, justified and mandatory in ‘the defense of our democracy’.”
      – All of them

  9. You gotta be sh**ing me!!!! As one of my best friends would say, ‘That’s a head shaker’.

  12. Uh and do the American families that are suffering right now get a share of this “tactical” spending?

  13. This type of spending has got to stop and stop now!! Our two senators should be screaming mad…..Where are they? I’m hardly surprised

  14. Lol all the Alaskans are complaining about wasteful government spending. The state that takes more federal handouts than any other state.

  15. Cats should be using the toilet. Much practical than getting them to walk a treadmill, cause there is already an action we can do for a fat cat change its diet and give it less food. The elected leaders will stop overspending when the community leaders and us public stop asking for government grants and appropriations, we and our towns live within our own means.

  16. The less leaders and general public asking for money would make catching greedy overspending easier and faster. You know I grew up hearing complain complain complain how so and so takes , takes, and takes. He doesn’t even work. Well! our unelected community leaders of governments and non profits take more in aid than the welfare recipient. Take less or don’t take anything at all from Uncle Sam.

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