Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, it appalls me. Too many people on the floor of this Congress fail to understand the power of taxation. The power of taxation is the power to put a gun at the heads of the American people and take money from them. The average American in this Nation earns somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 a year. For us to be taking money from them to subsidize the National Endowment for the Humanities, when we face a $153 billion deficit and a $5.2 trillion deficit and when funding from the private sector is abundant, $50 million in funding just in the last few years, Mr. Chairman; by 1992 there were 36,000 philanthropic foundations with $176.8 billion in assets and $10.2 billion in grants in this country for the humanities. I suggest we cannot continue to subsidize the humanities, and this is a reasonable proposal that keeps us on schedule with a 3-year phaseout, the kind of agreement we made with this Nation. It is not a radical proposal to eliminate the funding for this, even though a case can be made for that. It is, rather, a suggestion that we keep faith with the American people and we quit using the gun at their head to redistribute income for worthy purposes like the humanities, when the private sector can, Mr. Chairman, and is doing it.”