Cliff Stearns: “I will try and do two quotes here to perhaps change the mind of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Yates) and others on…”

“I will try and do two quotes here to perhaps change the mind of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Yates) and others on this subject. Let us go back to the year 1787. During the Constitutional Convention, Charles Pinckney of South Carolina offered a motion to authorize the government to spend money on the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences. The motion was put up before the members and it was defeated overwhelmingly. From that point on through the years of 1960, Americans enjoyed a vibrant and successful art community. Successful not because of the government, but without the government. Is the gentleman from Illinois repudiating all of that history? Suddenly, almost 200 years later in 1965, Congress started talking about supporting the arts through Federal funding. But do my colleagues know which President said he was against funding for the arts? President Kennedy, who stated, 'I do not believe Federal funds should support symphony orchestras or opera companies.' NEA has gotten very political. Everybody who is going to support the NEA would have to agree it has gotten very political, and the Federal Government has been the primary endorser of very controversial pieces of art. This art has been antithetical to our traditions and to our mores.”