RUSH: Mark in Gilbert, Arizona, as we head back to the phones. Welcome to the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.

CALLER: Oh, mega dittos, Rush. Longtime listener, first-time caller.

RUSH: Thank you, sir. Welcome.

CALLER: I work in the entertainment industry here in Phoenix, and we have Arizona State University in town, and we do a lot of National Endowment for the Arts programs over there, and those shows are so wasteful, Rush, it’s unbelievable. Broadway shows come through, regular shows come through, there’s costs with renting the building, there’s costs with labor, there’s all kinds of costs —

RUSH: Well, what kind of programs are we talking about?

CALLER: Well, one of them was they had this group in, and I couldn’t really describe it, Rush, it was just a weird combination of vignettes that made no sense to me at all. Apparently it means something to the arts crowd. I don’t get it.

RUSH: Well, how many people on stage in this show?

CALLER: Oh, they open the whole theater for less than a hundred people.

RUSH: No, but how many are in the act?

CALLER: Oh, in the act. There were probably five to 10.

RUSH: So you have five people on stage just uttering what they think are profundities to a hundred people —

CALLER: Yeah, absolutely.

RUSH: — that nobody would care about but the NEA paid for it anyway?

CALLER: Paid for it anyway. And there’s absolutely no limit to cost, I’m telling you. Whatever they want, they get. There’s absolutely no limit. If they want this or that or catering, it’s absolutely funded, no questions asked. And it’s absolutely ridiculous. I felt guilty receiving my wage because I knew that it was —

RUSH: Let me ask you. Did Gilbert, Arizona, in any way benefit? Was the culture and the community enriched at all by the arrival of this troupe?

CALLER: Not at all, because nobody even came!

RUSH: (laughing) Thank you, a hundred people showed up. That’s it. That’s it. You could end the NEA and it wouldn’t have any impact on anything.