If you want to know what federal grants are supported by taxpayer dollars, try Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) Real or Fake (1) and test your skills.
The questions include examples of real government grants signed this year and mock grants created by the quiz team. It is your job to decide what is real and what is not.
You Must Read
For example, did the USDA give $445,000 to a Brooklyn collective for the “Pickle Equity Initiative” studying fermentation as a “form of food justice?” Has the Department of Veterans Affairs funded research that teaches baby ferrets to drink alcohol excessively?
To find out, you will need to take questions.
But, for example, the Ministry of Defense he did spend about $77 million a year on the military dolphin training program. However, the State Department did not send a troupe of Mongolian throat singers on a $1.1 million “arms control culture exchange” tour through Central Asia.
But the biggest hack of government waste may surprise you — and it’s a lesson America’s families can learn from.
A major source of government waste
Paul’s 2025 Festivus report lists $1.6 billion in government waste (2).
Some of these costs are questionable. Other cuts, such as those made by the Department of Government Operations (DOGE), have eliminated funding and personnel that have disrupted services, including public safety and health programs (3). (This is not mentioned in the Festivus report.)
However, of the $1.6 trillion in government waste cited in the report, $1.22 trillion of that goes to interest payments on the federal government debt.
As of May 5, the country’s national debt (4) stands at $38.91 trillion. That’s $2.70 trillion more than one year ago. To put that into perspective, the total national debt has grown by $89,902.48 every second over the past year.
By 2025, interest payments on that debt reached $1.22 trillion (at an interest rate of 3.363%), according to the Treasury Department (5). So far this year, interest payments have already racked up another $735 billion.
A major source of household waste
American families are also accumulating debt (and interest costs) on mortgages, car loans, student loans, personal loans and credit cards.
Americans owe a whopping $18.57 trillion as of September 2025, according to Experian data (6). That translates to $105,444 for the average family, minus the mortgage.
Personal loan, student loan and home equity line of credit (HELOC) rates have all increased “as more consumers begin to face the problems of not being able to afford it by looking for the best borrowing rates, if they can,” according to Experian.
In particular, credit card balances have increased more than most other types of credit, and “record APRs no doubt played a role,” according to Experian. In total, Americans owe $1.252 trillion in credit card debt (as of Q1 2026), according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (7).
And, “due to high interest rates, stubborn inflation and many other economic factors,” credit card balances are likely to continue to rise through 2026, according to LendingTree (8).
The average APR for all credit cards was 21% in Q1 2026, while cards earned an average interest rate of 21.52%.
Read More: Taxes will change under Trump’s ‘big good debt’ – 4 reasons you can’t afford to waste time
How can you manage your debt?
To manage your credit, you can start by taking a page from the Real or Fake quiz and looking for places where you might be wasting money.
Sure, you might not be spending money on a military dolphin training program, but you might be spending it on that unused gym membership or getting out every now and then. Or maybe you’re bleeding your wallet from the lifestyle of trying to keep up with the Joneses.
But, like the federal government, you could be spending a lot of money in interest payments.
Ideally, you want to pay off your credit card balance in full when it comes due each month. But if your credit card balance is out of control, or if you’re juggling a lot of debt — including mortgage payments and/or medical bills — implementing a debt reduction strategy can help you get on the right track.
For example, in the snowball method, you pay off the smallest debt first and move on to the next smallest debt to build momentum. With the avalanche method, you start with the highest interest debt first.
If you have multiple credit cards, you may want to consider a 0% balance transfer card. But if you go this route, remember that the 0% APR period is temporary (usually 12 to 18 months), so focus on paying off your debt during that time — or you could end up back where you started.
For most debts, you may want to consider debt consolidation to lower the interest you pay and eliminate that debt faster. There are many options, but the right one will depend on the type of loan and factors such as your income level and your score.
To get better loan rates, it helps to improve and protect your credit score by paying debts on time, keeping credit utilization low and limiting new credit applications.
It may help to talk to a credit counselor or even your lenders. In a 2025 LendingTree survey (9), 83% of cardholders who asked their lender for a lower credit card interest rate were successful. When it comes to spending money, even a small reduction in your rate can make a big difference.
You May Love It Again
Join 250,000+ readers and get the best Moneywise news and exclusive interviews first — insightful information handpicked and delivered every week. Register now.
Sources of the article
We rely only on vetted sources and reliable third-party reporting. For details, see our conduct and guidelines.
Rand Paul (1); Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (2); CLASP (3); Joint Economic Committee (4); US Treasury Department (5); Scholar (6); Federal Reserve Bank of New York (7); Lending Tree (8), (9)
This article first appeared on Moneywise.com under the headline: Rand Paul’s trash questions are ridiculous – but the 1.22 billion Americans missing out on interest payments are no joke.
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. Offered without warranty of any kind.
