You know, if we can’t cut federal subsidies for a cowboy poetry festival, we really can’t cut federal subsidies for anything at all.
“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1, eliminates National Public Broadcasting,” said Reid in a floor speech. “It eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts. These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
Of course, the festival people would still exist. They would just be somewhere else doing something else. Or maybe commercial interests would step in and see the festival as a money-making opportunity and sponsor it. Combine it with a chili cook-off and a flea market and you’ve got yourself a guaranteed hit.
Perhaps these various national endowments should become our litmus test of spending seriousness: If they survive the current budget cutting fevah intact, we’re not serious.
Addendum: The cowboy way is all about rugged individualism. Not handouts from Uncle Sugar. The subsidy should be cut on that basis alone.
It’s a kind of legal existentialism: if they’re not at a Federally-funded event, they cease to exist.
Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
A cowboy poetry festival caused tens of thousands of people to exist? WHAT ARE WE MISSING OUT ON? Those must have been the steamiest festivals since Nero!
And if it’s that much fun, I don’t really think there’s reason for Federal funding…
“Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
Then by all means, hold the festival and make Harry Reid a ‘Special Guest of Honor’, especially so he won’t exist.
The argument against de-funding NPR and National Endowment for the Arts and etc is that, viewed from outer space, the amounts involved are tiny tiny, compared to the massive ‘entitlements’ problem.
However. Those tiny items employ the sort of people caught so nicely in today’s NPR luncheon video… and they are in the management side, with lovely large salaries. The cowboy poets, on the other hand, get a pat on the back and maybe a framed scroll (and a quiet little chuckle back in the Beltway, amusement at the lower class troglodytes who attend such festivals.)
Although, we note that the guy in the video (I can’t remember his name, but he has GREAT table manners), is already employed as some kind of art director at the Aspen Institute. Does the Aspen Institute receive funding from the troglodyte taxpayers???
“Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
Reid, the ever dry and dusty drama queen, needs to mind his p’s and q’s. In spite of what he said, I strongly suspect those tens of thousands of people existed before the festival was conceived and will continue to exist after the festival is defunded.
I enjoy the arts and humanities. I also say: Defund them all. Now. Today. Immediately.