Taxpayer-funded cowboy poetry? Is this an example of when parody becomes reality? Or is it the other way around, when reality becomes parody?
All I know for sure is that it is nauseating that the corrupt crowd in Washington thinks it is not only proper, but also praiseworthy, to steal money from the rest of the nation to fund vote-buying gimmicks in their home states.
Here’s a blurb from Politico about Harry Reid and his boondoggle.
In the middle of his tirade against House Republicans’ “mean-spirited” budget bill on the Senate floor Tuesday, the Senate Majority Leader lamented that the GOP’s proposed budget cuts would eliminate the annual “cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada. …“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”
I must have an out-dated version of the Constitution, because my copy doesn’t say that cowboy poetry is one of the enumerated powers of the federal government.
I suppose a caveat is appropriate. I realize that I’m not the most sophisticated guy in the world. I wouldn’t recognize good poetry from bad poetry. I’d rather chew on broken glass than attend an opera. My idea of a good time is playing softball with a bunch of guys, talking sports and swapping jokes.
So I’m not attacking poetry in general or cowboy poetry in particular. But I am objecting to federal subsidies for such events. I don’t ask other people to subsidize my softball. All I ask in exchange is that they don’t coerce me into subsidizing their hobbies.
[…] rid of the National Endowment for the Arts and people will quickly see that the hysterical claims of its supporters were […]
[…] I want to listen to cowboy poetry, I should pay for it […]
[…] the budgets don’t even go after low-hanging fruit such as the Small Business Administration, National Endowment for the Arts, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or Legal Services […]
[…] Harry Reid’s subsidies for cowboy poetry. […]
[…] Just in case you missed it, this modest victory for common sense took place in the Senate. You know, the place controlled by Harry Reid of Cowboy Poetry fame. […]
[…] Harry Reid’s subsidies for cowboy poetry. […]
[…] Harry Reid’s subsidies for cowboy poetry. […]
I’m involved with Cowboy Poetry, and it is self supporting. It receives NO federal money.
AAAhhh, let me see. Ya got thousands of cowboys who want to hear poems,
So off to Nevada, them cowboys do roam,
If you charge each ten dollars ,you could put on a show
They’d hear them a poem, but maybe not get a ho
If you charge each 15 dollars, you’d make you a profit,
If they ain’t got enough dough, them cowboys will rough it
Charge them whatever, it’s how one holds events
Have your damn poetry
just pay your own rent
[…] cowboy poetry? Is this an example of when parody becomes reality?Go here to read the rest: Harry Reid Wants Me (and You) to Subsidize Cowboy Poetry in Nevada […]
[…] (via Dan Mitchell) […]
[…] (via Dan Mitchell) […]