David Obey: “Even Babe Ruth struck out 1,300 times, and no sane manager would have benched Babe Ruth. I do not think we should bench…”

“Even Babe Ruth struck out 1,300 times, and no sane manager would have benched Babe Ruth. I do not think we should bench the National Endowment for the Arts. I would say that for every occasional grant that any Member of this body can find that has funded a piece of so-called art that we would find objectionable or outrageous, there are literally tens of thousands of grants that are provided that raise people's spirits, that open the eyes of young people to their greater and finer possibilities. And I would just suggest that it is not the urban centers of this country who would be the great losers if the Endowment were to die, it would be the thousands of small communities across this country who need the seed money that the Endowment provides in order to enrich the cultural lives of their children in many areas where they would otherwise not have the opportunity to see some of the grand things that funding under the Endowment can provide.”