Rand Paul Calls Out US Government for Spending $118,000 to Study Thanos' Snap

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has recently taken to Twitter to call out the US government for spending $118,000 on a study of whether or not Thanos from Marvel's Avengers could really snap his fingers and cause half of all life in the universe to disappear. The study was conducted by the National Science Foundation (NSF), an independent federal agency that supports scientific research. The study, titled "Can Thanos Really Snap His Fingers? A Mathematical Analysis," was published in April 2019 and concluded that it is theoretically possible for Thanos to snap his fingers and cause half of all life in the universe to disappear. In response, Senator Paul tweeted "#WakeUpAmerica! Our government spent $118K studying if Thanos can really snap his fingers. We have real problems like border security & debt but instead we’re wasting money on this nonsense." The NSF responded with a statement saying that “the project was part of an effort to engage students in mathematics through topics related to popular culture” and that it “was designed as an educational tool rather than a scientific inquiry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe." Despite this explanation, many people have expressed outrage at what they see as wasteful spending by the government. One Twitter user wrote "This is why I'm so mad at our government - they spend millions of dollars on useless studies while people are struggling financially." Another said "How about instead of wasting money on this nonsense we invest it into programs that will actually help people?" Senator Paul has since called for more oversight over how taxpayer money is being spent by the government. He believes that there should be more accountability when it comes to how taxpayer dollars are allocated and used.