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

New York Times ^ | January 29, 2004 | ROBERT PEAR

[The PeteMan]

Is this guy trying to lose the election??? I hate to say this but I am almost to the point where I don't think it would be any worse if a Dem was in there. As longs as we Keep the majority in Congress.

Bush is nothing more than a Liberal it appears.

This is the final straw,,,out of no where this craps seems to come~!!!

[yonif]

But the way to look at it, is that Bush took one bullet out of the gun of the Democrats, which is aimed at him.

So your saying he should do everything the Democrats want him to do so he can empty that gun?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Pat Buchanan where are you? Bush wants to pistol whip you.

LOL

[Diddle E. Squat]

Clearly the man does not lack political courage. Therefore, the only possible conclusion is that he likes this sort of spending.

Well yes, that could be ONE interpretation, or it could also be a political calculation of what he has to give up to win enough swing votes in close states to assure reelection. Not really any different than Tom Delay making a decision of what he has to give in to and give up in order to get enough support to push through his really important legislation.

[over3Owithabrain]

Bush is skull/bones; Kerry is skull/bones. Perhaps the fix is in...

God only knows what kind of blood oaths they take in that clan.

[spodefly]

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."

In case anyone has forgotten, what Mr. Tancredo is expressing is what is referred to as a "conservative" point of view.

[FairOpinion]

No, but I would rather have 0.00023% of the Federal Budget on this ridiculous thing, than have Kerry or Dean as president.

This is election year -- Bush is throwing a very small crumb out, to disarm the Dems on this issue.

Politics is not idealism, it's the "art of the possible".

I trust that Bush and his advisers know what they are doing.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Well of course he gets beat up, that goes with the territory. What matters is if he can, in the process, swing enough votes his way to get reelected. You are saying he can't, I am saying that he most definitely is.

Guess we'll see on election day.

[Hildy]

The amount is miniscule. It's a token, that's all.

[yonif]

No, but I would rather have 0.00023% of the Federal Budget on this ridiculous thing, than have Kerry or Dean as president.

Just how many votes do you expect Bush to get with this move? And also, if it is miniscule, are you under the opinion that it will be a very, very close election?

[Byron_the_Aussie]

...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...

If there's one thing this president's good at, it's delighting liberals. Yoni, if Bush is bribing PC Dems at this point on the calendar, can you imagine what he's going to be doing by November?

[Torie]

Ya, I am sure that is the grand unified theory that explains it all. The Bones men have to reveal their sex lives to other Bones men. That has to be at once both a psychological scarring and annealing experience, which binds them all to screwing America as a sublimative exercise every chance they get. Whatever.

[droberts]

Sorry with all the bland corporate wankers running about this country, we need a bit more art.

[inchworm]

The more Bush goes Liberal the more closer the election will get. That's for sure.

[RLK]

I've been a bush supporter for a long time. In fact, I'm even on board with his amnesty plan (but let's not change the topic). This one has me ready to call it quits and not vote this year!

-----------------------

How many more insults must you receive to go through with it?

[over3Owithabrain]

How come Bush's poll #'s have dipped considerably since post-2002 elections, when he has incrementally gotten more liberal in domestic spending and policy? You don't think for every Volvo-mom with tickets to the Peoria Symphony there isn't a conservative bible-toting mom who thinks publc financed "art" is a waste of her tax $$$?

[F16Fighter]

"This isn't about spending. It is about folks' splenetic over-reaction to a culture war they want to fight, with targets that prove so ever elusive, that they really can't get satisfaction from the fight."

Are Freepers "over-reacting"?? Or are you under-reacting?

It appears Freepers overwhelmingly deem rewarding the perverted NEA a disturbingly horrible idea. Symbolically, this is a political neutron bomb.

[yonif]

Yoni, if Bush is bribing PC Dems at this point on the calendar, can you imagine what he's going to be doing by November?

One can only imagine. I also believe that most if not all of this pandering will not be overturned or waged war against if Bush is reelected, because then there will be the thought of hurting the 2008 GOP candidate, and so on....

Gov. will continue to grow no matter who is in power.

[SAMWolf]

Is he purposely trying to PO his Conservative Base?

[Map Kernow]

It appeals to me, because I think I got it right. It is not meant to persuade those that are not subject to persuasion.

Oh? Try me. What about it "appeals" to you? You think spending on the National Endowment is money well spent? Stick just to that issue, please---don't drag in extraneous, irrelevant, and "splenetic" references to ethanol, ranchers, military bases, etc.