BUDGET INCREASE FOR THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT OF THE ARTS

The Drudge Report ^ | 01-28-2004 | Matt Drudge

[Captain Peter Blood]

BUSH TO SEEK BIG BUDGET INCREASE FOR NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS... Laura Bush plans to announce the request -- for the largest increase in two decades -- on Thursday... Developing...

[gatorbait]

We balanced the budget with Clinton and a GOP Congress. We'll do it with Kerry and a GOP Congress too

Don't bet your life on that.On second thought, go ahead, bet your life.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Of COURSE. And you must realize that he does NONE of these things alone.

[WOSG]

Congress is partly to blame, but bush is leading the conservatives towards the mushy middle on too many things, rather than leading the moderates to the conservatives position.

[GeronL]

BUSH seeks $15-$20 Million increase in NEA

Some FReepers are trying to say Congress did this last fall, this is happening now from the White House!!

[jpsb]

Did you know that under Clinton we had a balanced budget? (Grid lock works for me) And under Bush we have a $500,000,000,000.00 deficit? Doesn't seem like a good time to be ordering another round. The Rats are going to cream Bush and the GOP in this next election. The GOP is blowing it big time.

[yonif]

Bush Is Said to Seek More Money for Arts
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 — President Bush will seek a big increase in the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest single source of support for the arts in the United States, administration officials said on Wednesday.

The proposal is part of a turnaround for the agency, which was once fighting for its life, attacked by some Republicans as a threat to the nation's moral standards.

Laura Bush plans to announce the request on Thursday, in remarks intended to show the administration's commitment to the arts, aides said.

Administration officials, including White House budget experts, said that Mr. Bush would propose an increase of $15 million to $20 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That would be the largest rise in two decades and far more than the most recent increases, about $500,000 for 2003 and $5 million for this year.

The agency has a budget of $121 million this year, 31 percent lower than its peak of $176 million in 1992. After Republicans gained control of Congress in 1995, they cut the agency's budget to slightly less than $100 million, and the budget was essentially flat for five years.

In an e-mail message inviting arts advocates to a news briefing with Mrs. Bush, Dana Gioia, the poet who is chairman of the endowment, says, "You will be present for an important day in N.E.A. history."

Mr. Gioia (pronounced JOY-uh) has tried to move beyond the culture wars that swirled around the agency for years. He has nurtured support among influential members of Congress, including conservative Republicans like Representatives Charles H. Taylor and Sue Myrick of North Carolina. He has held workshops around the country to explain how local arts organizations can apply for assistance.

Public support for the arts was hotly debated in the 1990's. Conservatives complained that the agency was financing obscene or sacrilegious works by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. Former Senator Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina, repeatedly tried to eliminate the agency.

Some new money sought by Mr. Bush would expand initiatives with broad bipartisan support, like performances of Shakespeare's plays and "Jazz Masters" concert tours.

Mrs. Bush also plans to introduce a new initiative, "American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius." This would combine art presentations — from painting and literature to music and dance — with education programs. The program would give large numbers of students around the country a chance to see exhibitions and performances.

New York receives a large share of the endowment's grants. But under federal law, the agency also gives priority to projects that cater to "underserved populations," including members of minority groups in urban neighborhoods with high poverty rates.

The president's proposal faces an uncertain future at a time of large budget deficits.

Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, an advocacy group, said, "We'll be fighting tooth and nail for the increase."

Some conservatives, like Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, vowed to oppose the increase. Even without support from the government, he said, "art would thrive in America."

Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a New York Democrat who is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Arts Caucus, said she was delighted to learn of Mr. Bush's proposal.

"There's nothing in the world that helps economic development more than arts programs," Ms. Slaughter said. "It was foolish for Congress to choke them and starve them. We should cherish the people who can tell us who we are, where we came from and where we hope to go."

Mr. Tancredo expressed dismay. "We are looking at record deficit and potential cuts in all kinds of programs," he said. "How can I tell constituents that I'll take money away from them to pay for somebody else's idea of good art? I have no more right to do that than to finance somebody else's ideas about religion."

The agency has long had support from some Republicans, like Representatives Christopher Shays of Connecticut and Jim Leach of Iowa.

"Government involvement is designed to take the arts from the grand citadel of the privileged and bring them to the public at large," Mr. Leach said. "This democratization of the arts ennobles the American experience."


Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting for this article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/29/politics/29BUDG.html?ei=5062&en=cddfa32eb4d0278d&ex=1075957200&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=

[gatorbait]

voted for Alan Keyes in the primaries over Bush, but the RNC made sure that they used as much money as it took to be sure that Bush got the nomination

Good God, have you been getting contact paranoia from DU? Did you you say that aloud before writing it down? It sounds very much like a black helicopter moment, there.

[The Old Hoosier]

It came out of Congress because BUSH muscled the conservatives into it. Remember that 3 hour medicare vote? The bribe offered to Nick Smith?

NO Democrat would have gotten such an initiative through congress.

[luckydevi]

Agreed, congress is part of the problem

[Mo1]

We balanced the budget with Clinton and a GOP Congress. We'll do it with Kerry and a GOP Congress too.

You've got to be kidding

And we got ALOT of other things with Clinton and a GOP Congress then a balanced budget

And we are paying the price for it now .. It's called Terrorists

[GeronL]

why would Bush veto his own spending proposal?

[yonif]

I posted the article:

Bush Is Said to Seek More Money for Arts [$15 million to $20 million for NEA]

[jpsb]

Yup, Newt was our last best hope. I don't know that to do this election, might sit it out.

[Tamzee]

>How about you just throw your vote to Kerry, Dean, Edwards, or whoever the Dem nominee is.

>>Keep repeating this. Maybe you'll even convince yourself there is a difference.


Ralph-Nader-There-Is-No-Difference-Between-Democrats-and-Republicans

[Sloth]

"What good is a war if it's defending a socialist nation?"

That'll make a mighty fine tag line for someone.

A better way of stating it might be, "Why fight foreign enemies while surrending to domestic ones?"

[gatorbait]

Congress is partly to blame, but bush is leading the conservatives towards the mushy middle on too many things, rather than leading the moderates to the conservatives position

You're unfamiliar with the phrase, if the Mountain won't come to Mohammad, Mohammand must go to the Mountain?Same concept. Not difficult to see the concept, is it?

[GeronL]

This one is coming out of the White house for next years' budget. This is not the increase from last fall.

[Mo1]

Did you know that under Clinton we had a balanced budget? (Grid lock works for me) And under Bush we have a $500,000,000,000.00 deficit? Doesn't seem like a good time to be ordering another round. The Rats are going to cream Bush and the GOP in this next election. The GOP is blowing it big time.

And did you know that Clinton ignored the terrorists and North Korea nukes all those years

Look .. I'm not thrilled with this spending .. but it's also been mentioned on this thread that it was the House that increased it .. Not the President

Drudge's headline is misleading

[hobson]

Why are you screaming at me?

[jpsb]

I think the Rats are going to clean the GOP clock. And I think the GOP deserves to have it's clock cleaned.