WASTE OF THE WEEK, #13: THE WOODSTOCK HIPPIE MUSEUM

Lawrenceville, NJ – U.S. Senate candidate Dick Zimmer’s “Waste of the Week” campaign this week highlights how Senator Frank Lautenberg chose to spend $1,000,000 on a hippie museum rather than support a prenatal and child healthcare program.  

The Museum at Bethel Woods is commonly referred to as the Woodstock hippie museum since it examines the experience of the Woodstock festival and the legacy of the Sixties.  

Senator Lautenberg voted against a specific amendment that would have shifted $1,000,000 in federal funds from the Woodstock hippie museum to the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant Program which provides prenatal and children’s healthcare. (Senate vote 377, October 18, 2007, S. Amdt. 3321 to HR 3043, FL voted yes on motion to kill amendment) 

During yesterday’s U.S. Senate radio debate on New Jersey 101.5 FM, Senator Lautenberg said that he voted for the hippie museum because “it looked like something that was vital in terms of American history and the movement of our society.” However, the museum was considered absurd even by Democrats who crossed party lines to kill it.  (NJ 101.5 FM, October 29, 2008; USA Today, Senate Quashes Grant for Woodstock Museum, October 19, 2007)   Zimmer issued the following statement:  

“Apparently, Senator Lautenberg feels that preserving go-go boots and tie-dyed t-shirts is more ‘vital’ to society than the health of our nation’s children.   

“Wasteful spending must be stopped so our economy can get back on track.  As Senator, I will eliminate wasteful spending and make the interests of the taxpayers my top priority.” 

Zimmer’s “Waste of the Week” campaign is designed to highlight Senator Frank Lautenberg’s record of supporting wasteful spending and pork-barrel politics at the expense of New Jersey taxpayers.  Previous Wastes of the Week were the $300 billion Farm Bill, the $389 million Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska, a $225,000 pamphlet on beaver damage, various Monuments to Me spending projects, the Teapot Museum in North Carolina, the Joplin, Missouri interchange, Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, renovations for the Scottish Rite Theatre in Collingswood, New Jersey, the EarthPark indoor rainforest in Iowa, the Frank R. Lautenberg Train Station, the Camden-Philadelphia aerial tram, the wood uses research and the Hippie museum. 

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