New Museums on Women & Latinos Promise to Be a Waste of Space and Money

Don’t we have enough museums? As part of the COVID relief and stopgap appropriations bill, Congress approved the establishment and construction of two new museums in Washington near the Mall. One focuses on Latino Americans while the other examines the history of women. The two buildings are expected to cost $400 million each. It’s thought that they’ll use the same financing model as the very good, new African American History and Culture Museum, which raised half of its $350 million tariff through philanthropy and the other half from a federal appropriation.

I admire H. R. Gross, a longtime — now dead — congressman from Iowa and the budget hawk with the beadiest, most relentless eye ever. He consistently voted against new spending, memorably opposing the Vietnam War not on moral grounds but because bombs were so expensive. “A million bucks, and, poof, they’re gone,” he noted, and no one can argue with that. I haven’t seen any apparitions, but I feel Gross’s spirit upon me, and he’s angry and red-faced.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

Don’t we have enough museums? As part of the COVID relief and stopgap appropriations bill, Congress approved the establishment and construction of two new museums in Washington near the Mall. One focuses on Latino Americans while the other examines the history of women. The two buildings are expected to cost $400 million each. It’s thought that they’ll use the same financing model as the very good, new African American History and Culture Museum, which raised half of its $350 million tariff through philanthropy and the other half from a federal appropriation.

I admire H. R. Gross, a longtime — now dead — congressman from Iowa and the budget hawk with the beadiest, most relentless eye ever. He consistently voted against new spending, memorably opposing the Vietnam War not on moral grounds but because bombs were so expensive. “A million bucks, and, poof, they’re gone,” he noted, and no one can argue with that. I haven’t seen any apparitions, but I feel Gross’s spirit upon me, and he’s angry and red-faced.