Ernst tracks over $1.3 billion US tax dollars sent to Russia and China

WASHINGTON (TND) — The U.S. has sent over $1.3 billion tax dollars to Russia and China since 2017 according to a new analysis released by the Open The Books auditors and Sen. Joni Ernst.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, joined The National Desk’s Dee Dee Gatton to discuss the issue.

“There are so many that we found just diving into the receipts and all the information that has been uncovered by Open The Books and another great partner has been the white coat waste project as well. We found about $1.3 billion so far, that's just so far in dollars that have gone to our greatest adversaries China and Russia,” she said. “One of those other wasteful projects was the $2 million that has gone to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and we all know how that ended up. We can surmise that most likely, the Coronavirus came out of this lab leak and unfortunately part of that research could have been funded by that $2 million that went to the institute.”

The Congressional Research Service and Open The Books provided data that determined more than $490 million of U.S. grants and contracts were paid to organizations in China since 2017 and another $870 million were paid to entities in Russia with one of the projects including $58.7 million from the Department of State and more than $96,000 for gender equality through exhibition of New Yorker magazine cartoons.

“We found another $770,000 that went to Russia to put cats on a treadmill and I've joked about this folks I mean, if you can make $770,000 I'd be happy to get on a treadmill right here in the great old US of A but there are so many wasteful projects that we have been funding,” Ernst said. “Unfortunately, a lot of those wasteful projects are going to our adversary’s American taxpayer dollars blowing into Russia and China. This is absolutely not a stop so I proposed a bill it's called the Tracks Act, which would require us to provide transparency and track those dollars that are going to Russia and China.”