Gather Your Groovy Beads

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl The Senate recently considered a spending bill that provides $150 billion to run the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services next year. This bill would spend $9 billion more than the president recommended, and contains in excess of 1,000 earmarks, many of them inappropriate pork spending. I was successful in eliminating one of the more egregious pieces of pork the first time in memory this has been done. This bill contained a $1 million earmark for a museum located at the Bethel Performing Arts Center in Bethel, New York the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival. The museum, which is scheduled to open in 2008, will house exhibits on the Woodstock Festival and the 1960s culture. According to the museum's Web site, Through dramatic imagery, audio-visual technology and immersive interactives, this exhibition tells the story of the 1969 [Woodstock] festival and its significance in a time of unrest and change, concluding with the myth, reality, and impact of the Woodstock Festival today. For those who believe the Woodstock Festival needs to be commemorated, it can happen without federal support the taxpayers in Arizona and other states do not need to subsidize the museum. The Gerry Foundation, a nonprofit organization, oversees the Bethel Center. It reported an adjusted net income of $7.7 million, investment income of more than $24 million, and total net assets of over $150 million at the end of 2004, (the last year for which statistics are available), plenty to keep it going. On August 11, there was a festival at the site of Woodstock. Tickets to the event, called the Hippiefest, cost up to $60 a person. Here is how it was advertised: Return to the flower-powered days of the 1960s with our oh-so-hippie line-up of truly talented artists¦Gather your groovy beads and well see you on the lawn for a trip down memory lane. So why should Congress earmark $1 million to fund this particular museum? The amendment I offered with Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn struck the $1 million earmark and transferred the funding to the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant program a legitimate program in the Department of Health and Human Services. We have had a lot of debate recently about protecting children's health; and it seemed to me that we could use this $1 million for children's health rather than helping to pay the expenses of an already very well-funded museum to celebrate Woodstock. Members of Congress should be stewards of taxpayer dollars. That money has been collected from hard-working families who expect us to put it to good use. They are frustrated about wasteful Washington spending and rightfully criticize Congress for spending their money on lower priorities. They see their government as not accountable to them and out of touch with the realities of their lives trying to provide for their own families. They are not against paying taxes, but they do not want Congress to waste their money. Elimination of one wasteful earmark was symbolic, but important. As one staffer told me (and she was sincerely worried): This is not good. It could start a whole series of these amendments; Well, imagine that! Back to Woodstock: a trip down memory lane may be fine for folks, but now if they want to participate, they can pay the admission price. And the rich entrepreneur in New York who wants to create the museum can put in his own money. American taxpayers will not have to foot the bill.