[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1293-H1294]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            FUNDRAISING FOR NATIONAL EMPOWERMENT TELEVISION

  (Mr. SCHUMER asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  [[Page H1294]] Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, tonight the Speaker of the 
House is the special host of a dinner to benefit National Empowerment 
Television, a radical right-wing TV station devoted solely to espouse 
reactionary views over the airways 24 hours a day. It is appalling that 
there is a TV station designed not to be objective, but to brainwash, 
and to boot it is tax deductible.
  Just as appalling is the price tag for the dinner, $50,000 a plate.
  What do you they serve at a $50,000-a-plate dinner? First is access, 
a chance to rub elbows with the Speaker; second, and just as 
outrageous, a huge taxpayer subsidy. That is right. Unlike meals most 
working Americans eat, this one comes with a special $19,800 tax break. 
About a dozen people are attending the dinner, for a total tax break of 
$237,600, enough money for 21,000 meals-on-wheels for the elderly.

                              {time}  1120

  By the way, if you are working for the minimum wage, it will take you 
5 years, 45 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours and 33 minutes to pay for this one 
dinner. I guess that dinner will be served in the year 2000 on December 
22. The fundraiser is wrong. The price tag is way out of line. The TV 
station is bizarre and the taxpayer subsidy is a disgrace.

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