Opinion

Having a gay time on your tax dollars

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

You work hard and pay your taxes, right? Well some among us don't work and don't pay taxes and yet expect society to pay for their needs. That's a slam at hard-working, tax-paying Americans. But just as bad - in my opinion - are the programs that are funded by those hard-working Americans who pay those taxes. Let me give you the latest example.

The National Endowment for the Arts sounds good, looks good on paper and to oppose a program that will bring art education to the masses is akin to something un-American. But if you want to see your tax dollars truly wasted, just look at some of the programs sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Your tax dollars - $35,000 to be exact - will soon be used to stage a musical on the life of gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan. If you don't recall Mr. Cunanan - which you shouldn't - he's the bad guy who gunned down famed fashion designer Gianni Versace and then, when cornered by police, committed suicide. Now I might just be a redneck, but a musical on the life and times of Andrew Cunanan doesn't seem like an appropriate expenditure of my tax dollars.

As expected, of course, the musical will be staged in California. Does it make you wonder what government official gave the go-ahead to a musical based on the life of a gay serial killer? What's really frightening is that the request quite easily could have been for $350,000 and it still probably would have been approved.

Congress has oversight over the spending of the National Endowment for the Arts but somehow, these asinine pieces of "art" frequently are approved. My opposition is not to the musical itself. Who really cares? What bothers me is that some of us have to work hard to provide enough tax dollars to fund such a fiasco.

If Congress is so concerned over the growth of spending and the lack of balance in our national budget, I think I could suggest a good starting point for a few cuts. You want to guess where I would start cutting?

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