Tom Tancredo: “Mr. Chairman, I guess I am here to speak for the cultural iconoclasts of the Congress and of the Nation who are…”

“Mr. Chairman, I guess I am here to speak for the cultural iconoclasts of the Congress and of the Nation who are concerned about the fact that the gentleman from Connecticut who just spoke is correct in that he says this is a statement, a statement that the government has a role to play in the funding of the arts. This is the ultimate sort of decision we must make here and we will, of course, after a certain period of time as to exactly why it is the Federal Government's role to participate in this. It is not for me to suggest that any of the things that the National Endowment for the Arts or Humanities does with the money is inappropriate. I am sure that in 2003, the New York Foundation for the Arts to support a fine-cut edit of Check Your Body At the Door, a video documentary about popular, social and club dancers in New York City; or, say, the Orange Show Foundation in Houston, Texas, to support conservation and restoration of the Beer Can House, a work by self-taught artist John Milkovisch.”