Reid attacks GOP budget for trying to cut money for Nevada's cowboy poetry festival

Senate Majority Harry Reid (D-Nev.) slammed the Republicans' budget proposal on Tuesday as 'mean-spirited' and complained it would eliminate money for a cowboy poetry festival that brings tens of thousands of tourists to Nevada. 

“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1, eliminates National Public Broadcasting," said Reid in a floor speech. "It eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts. These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.” 

The Republican plan would slash $57 billion from the budget for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. That budget is likely to face a vote in the Senate on Tuesday evening.