Political Quotes

“Last year this Congress made a commitment to fulfill its obligation to balance the Federal budget. We face a $5.2 trillion debt and a $153 billion deficit. Our commitment was to reduce the subsidy that we provide to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I rise to offer an amendment which fulfills that commitment. Last year former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett testified before this Congress that we should eliminate the funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities. And former Secretary Lynne Cheney, who headed the National Endowment for the Humanities, also has called for an ending of this Federal subsidy of the humanities. Many Members of this Congress...we simply can no longer afford to continue to subsidize the humanities. My amendment takes a modest step in that direction. It fulfills the promise we made last year. The bill before us makes a mere 5 percent cut in the funding for National Endowment for the Humanities. At that rate, Mr. Chairman, it will take us 19 years to fulfill our promise to end the subsidy to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Instead of doing that, this amendment offers an increase in that figure.”