COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : The Taxpayers’ Pockets and Funding for NEA

In response to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s Counterpunch commentary of Sept. 10, “The Art of Picking Taxpayers’ Pockets,” I am continually amazed that each time he argues that taxpayer funding and not censorship is the issue in the ongoing NEA flap, he does so in the context of content restriction.

If he is so darn worried about the money, why doesn’t he try to kill this program outright rather than attach his own amendment to the Interior appropriations bill that would not allow funding of artworks that show human sexual organs or any kind of sexual activities or would not allow an artist to depict an American flag in any way but presumably its “normal” state? Come on, Dana, which is it? Funding or censorship?

BOB PATTISON

Santa Ana