Todd Tiahrt: “Some people are having a difficult decision here, and, you know, we are often asked to establish priorities. Sometimes…”

“Some people are having a difficult decision here, and, you know, we are often asked to establish priorities. Sometimes we are asked to decide whether we should fund an after-school program or special education. For some, that is a difficult decision. But tonight I do not think we are facing a difficult decision. We have $22 million that we could add to Native American health care, or we could subsidize the arts, humanities and museums. Now, this industry of the arts is a very wealthy industry. The gentleman from Michigan made a good point about how we are trying to make decisions between subsidizing the wealthy versus subsidizing a very needy cause. Well, Hollywood is full of millionaires; New York and Broadway are full of millionaires. Each year $9 billion is spent on the arts; jobs in the arts community are growing 3.6 times faster than the regular economy; there are more Americans that attend an artistic event every year than attend sporting events; and yet we are willing to make a choice to subsidize wealthy producers, actors, artists and all of those who contribute to the arts another $22 million. Some do not care if we turn our backs on the Native Americans, because they want to subsidize and support some of these wealthy Americans through the arts.”