Despite high unemployment, a $19 trillion national debt, and crises in social security, medicare, education, and infrastructure, the U.S. government continues to spend your money like they’re on Spring Break. Here are just a few examples of how your elected officials have been spending your hard-earned money:

Congress spent $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees and poinsettias, $113,227 for a video game preservation center, $550,000 for a documentary about how rock music contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, $10 million for a remake of “Sesame Street” for Pakistan, $764,825 to study how college students use mobile devices for social networking, $615,000 to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead, $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love, and $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions.”

Politicians need to stop wasting our money on these frivolous programs and start serving the more pressing interests of the American people and the global community.

It gets worse. The U.S. House of Representatives is finalizing their draft of the new Farm Bill which includes a massive hike in farm subsidies to $10 billion of your tax dollars every year — the largest allocation in American history. In simple terms, it translates to an unprecedented windfall of relief for the people who confine, abuse, and slaughter animals. For example, when sales in the chicken killing industry dipped last year, the government doled out $40 million of your tax dollars to prop up chicken farmers — a small fraction of the billions of dollars they award the animal agriculture industry every year. Instead of allowing the free market economy to dictate who survives based on consumer demand (perhaps the dip resulted from an increase in popularity of vegetarian food), the government continues to bail out some of their biggest campaign contributors.

We also want to reduce government subsidies for feed — the corn and other grains fed to the confined animals in factory farms that could be put to better use by feeding it to people. By not subsidizing feed for animals, prices for animal flesh and secretions will increase and consumers will turn to more healthful, cheaper, and cruelty-free options. We want to increase subsidies for fresh produce, a move that will lower prices for consumers and encourage sustainable farming and health.

Please call your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives right now at (202) 224-3121. Ask to speak to the legislative aid in your politician’s office who handles the Farm Bill.

Tell your elected leaders and the Agriculture Committee that you’re opposed to subsidies for animal agriculture and the grain that’s used to feed them and that you support subsidies for fruit and vegetables. The lobbyists for the people who confine, abuse, and slaughter animals with your tax dollars are using their voices to get this bill passed right now! Please speak up for the animals! We are their voice!

Please call today!