The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) began funding the Popular Romance Project in 2008. Intended to “explore the fascinating, often contradictory origins and influences of popular romance as told in novels, films, comics, advice books, songs, and internet fan fiction,” the project has spent over $914,000 in taxpayer funds.
“Since I started my SOS program, I’ve found more than my share of pointless government programs hidden deep inside our spending bills.” said Salmon in a statement released Thursday. “When I first read about the Popular Romance Project, even I was surprised that the National Endowment for the Humanities would waste money on a project like this.”
Salmon says that romance novels are some of the most prolific literary works available, and for good reason; according to the Popular Romance Project’s own website, ‘Popular romance sells.’ The website goes on to highlight the strengths of the genre, saying ‘romance fiction generated $1.37 billion in sales in 2008,’ yet the NEH has still given nearly one million taxpayer dollars to the program since it was first created.
Salmon asks, “Why would we continue wasting our money on a pet project that gives nothing worthwhile to the taxpayer?”
Salmon hopes to find at least 1.5 billion dollars in wasteful spending that can be eliminated.