EDITORIAL: Pickleball, federal pork and the death of fiscal restraint

Pork is pork, whether it’s federal spending for a project in Des Moines, Kalamazoo, Peoria or … Las Vegas.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican representing Kentucky, does the nation a great service each December by releasing his Festivus Report. The analysis highlights unnecessary government spending in the tradition of the late Sen. William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Award or former Sen. Tom Coburn’s yearly Wastebook.

This year’s Festivus Report identifies more than $1.8 trillion of what Sen. Paul argues is “government waste.” He notes that Washington is swimming in more than $36 trillion of red ink and that this sea of debt will only deepen unless our elected representatives quickly check their addiction to spending other people’s money in an effort to buy votes back home.

“This year, members of both political parties in Congress voted for massive spending bills, filled with subsidies for underperforming industries, continued military aid to Ukraine and controversial climate initiatives,” he observed. “As Congress spends to reward its favored pet projects, the American taxpayers are forced to pay through high prices and crippling interest rates.”

Here is a sampling of the projects that drew Sen. Paul’s ire:

■ The State Department spent $4.84 million on social media influencers, $873,000 on “movies in Jordan” and $3 million on “‘girl-centered climate action’ in Brazil.”

■ The Department of Energy directed $15.5 billion to various campaigns to steer consumers to purchase electric vehicles.

■ The National Science Foundation spent $288,563 “to ensure bird watching groups have safe spaces.”

■ The Department of Health and Human Services “spent $419,470 to determine if lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats.”

■ The National Endowment for the Arts directed $365,00 “to promote circuses in city parks.”

One project on the list that might be of interest to Southern Nevadans was a $12 million Department of Interior expenditure for a Las Vegas pickleball campus. The item is part of a 30-court development planned for Wayne Bunker Park in northwest Las Vegas funded by a grant from the Bureau of Land Management.

Building a pickleball court with more elaborate features — lighting, fencing — should cost about $50,000. The $12 million Bunker Park facility works out to $400,000 per court. Perhaps they’re using asphalt plated with gold mined at the Bullfrog Project outside Beatty.

Nevadans might ask why they were on the hook for the Lawrence Welk museum in North Dakota or the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska. It is fair, then, for Alaskans or North Dakotans to wonder why they must contribute to a local pickleball endeavor in Las Vegas. Somewhere in the equation, however, is the explanation for why Washington is where fiscal responsibility goes to die.