[RitchieAprile]

Bush's fault.

[Deb]

Is this from the Onion?

[GeronL]

how is “arts” an important public function??

[FreedomForce]

Why didn’t he just give it to the federal government since he apparently thinks they know better what to do with his money than he does?

[HereInTheHeartland]

Important to note he didn't write the check to the government!

[seowulf]

Maybe he should have hired someone to work on his show instead of paying for crappy art.

[SparkyBass]

Betcha he takes a tax write-off on his donation.

[Carling]

Does Steves realize that his private donation won’t have to be filtered through the bloated federal government?

This is parody, right? This is why the GOP wants less taxes for the “rich”. Steves’ private donation will help fund more jobs than him giving the $1 million to federal government.

[Kenny500c]

Why doesn’t he get it?

By not paying taxes to Washington, he can donate the money to a charity of his choice.

[Kirkwood]

Too much drug use in Amsterdam.

[Baynative]

It’s great that he got direct his hard earned money towards something he believes in rather than have the government piss it away under the table.

[Myrddin]

The government has no business taxing anybody to fund art programs. Art should be good enough to attract buyers on its own. If not good enough, it deserves to go away. Subsidizing poor quality by involuntary confiscation from the productive is immoral.

BTW, STFU Rick Steves. Mind your own business.

[TADSLOS]

The Herald newspaper of Everett reports ( http://bit.ly/quuOap) that Steves says he's alarmed that the tax burden on rich people has dropped while public funding for important local programs has been slashed.

But Rick has no problem getting rich himself off of the backs of rich people who take his over-priced tours and buy his travel books...

[AmusedBystander]

...while public funding for important local programs has been slashed...

What the hell has been slashed. Government spending is at an all time high for everything.

[q_an_a]

Gee wiz Rick you get the point!! If people want something they can donate money instead of taking it from those who don’t care about what you think is important. I like music and museums so I join them and pay for admission.

[Menehune56]

I watched him once or twice years ago and his show was pleasant. Sounds like Rick is quite the hard leftist though.

[SES1066]

I had more than a little respect for Mr Steves in his logical, common-sense approach and research for tourism and travel. Then he did an hour-long pean to travel in Iran (2009) that castigated the US for irrational antagonism towards theocratic Islamic Republic. I may have missed it, but the months-long Iranian protests against rigged internal elections seemed to generate no retraction from the honorable Mr Steves. I would like to ask this idiot his current opinion on touring Iran after the multiple-year sentences for two, very disputable border violations.

Crickets ... /S

[hosepipe]

PBS funding should be stopped.. as well as most of other federal government funding..

[NormsRevenge]

Hey Rick.. Send me a few grand and I’ll see what I can pick up in Italy and Greece for ya.. videos too..

getting paid to travel.. what a gig.

[muleskinner]

He is an anti-American Euro-socialist. In some of his travel books he is always taking shots at America and Americans. He even devoted a whole chapter to tell his leftist acolytes that most Americans are mean, GREEDY, narrow-minded poltroons who are barely intelligent enough to breath.

You know, the Tea Party.

I even wrote an email to him and his leftist kingdom of fawning cretins in Washington state explaining that if that is his belief, then end your citizenship and bloody MOVE OUT!

[vox_freedom]

This pro-marijuana user liberal has made more than a million $$$ in his “public television” broadcasts. It would be interesting to know exactly what PBS paid him for his travel shows. He’s also made a ton of money in his travel brokerage business and his huge number of book sales.