David Obey: “What we have heard on this floor for years on this subject is that we should not fund amendments like this simply…”

“What we have heard on this floor for years on this subject is that we should not fund amendments like this simply because at some time in the past the arts program was not perfect. Well, I grant that. But for how we ought to view them today, I once again consult my sociological bible, my friend archie the cockroach, and here is what archie said about the arts. "They are instinctively trying to hand the public some kind of stuff that wins the audience away from the often sordid surface of existence. They may do it badly, they may do it obviously, they may do it crudely, but they do have the hunch that what the millions want is to be shown that there is something possible to the human race besides the dull repetition of the triviality which is so often the routine of common existence. . . . And every now and then they have blundered into doing something with the touch of the universal in it." That, to me, is what is so great about this little program.”