On Second Thought...

Yesterday I made fun of the way a woman who bought one of Hunter Biden's paintings had found herself appointed to the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. I also made fun of the commission, since it focused on Eastern and Central European areas that have been extensively explored in movies that involve pale gentlemen with a fondness for red and nighttime.

I've since learned that a great deal of the Commission's work instead focuses on the preservation of things like Jewish cemeteries and memorials to Holocaust victims, as well as archives and documents relating to them. This is not by itself a bad thing. Large numbers of people who have come to the U.S. were victims of oppression by both the Nazis and Soviet-dominated regimes. Others had been smacked around by the dictators' predecessors.

So in essence, the commission's goals are not bad ones. When the bill containing it was sponsored in 1985 by then-Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) and signed by Ronald Reagan, there was significant worry that the totalitarian regimes of those areas would work pretty hard to destroy the past. Because that's what dictators do, just like the Taliban blowing up the Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001. Yes, we kicked their tails after they moved on to skyscrapers, but as we learned when the current administration brought back the old Saigon Helicopter Shuffle in August of 2021, American tail-kickings have an expiration date.

But...it's not the government's job -- our government's job, anyway. While the description of its mission says it's to work with the State Department to help obtain assurances from other governments that these sites will be preserved and maintained, I live among a bunch of people who can tell you what government assurances are worth. There might be a ton of private donation money and nice smiles and pats on the head. But there's no way to insure some of these governments will honor any assurances unless we hang a picture of a "Your Secret Hideout" -marked ICBM in whatever language required in that president or leader's office.

While Commission members themselves are unpaid, their travel and hotel stays and meals are covered. The Commission staff average salary is $125,000. There are other staff, of course, so the total cost is probably higher than that. When created in 1985, the Commisson received no federal funds. In 1990, after Reagan was gone but while Lugar was still in office, the Commission received its first federal appropriation. For FY 2023-2024, it has available $1.03 million to spend.

The point is not saving the government money. The points are that this is not a task for government and that even an agency begun without any government expense, created by a couple of those mean old pinch-penny Republicans, will eventually start costing something. 

Things might get so bad someone would buy an ugly expensive painting just for a chance to sit at the table and listen to chairwoman Star Jones lead the meeting.