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

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

[yonif]

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."

[ARCADIA]

I don't suggest this site to many people anymore, unless I am certain they understand the high number of grumps on this board, and what their motives are.

You should reread this thread from the beginning and tally up the number of personal insults. This board has been infested with low brow "bush bots".

[OWK]

Higher standards for schools is popular. Or are you against high standards for schools.

Higher standards?

What a pantload.

Public schools stink.

Throw more money at them.. they get worse..

Is there ANY leftist tripe you won't rationalize for this socialist president?

[from occupied ga]

Your examples(mapplethorpe etc.etc.) were all funded during the Reagan administration.

Mapplethorp continues to be funded by the NEA. Just produced a play in 2001 on NEA (IE TAXPAYER) funds.

[ovrtaxt]

Ive been having fun with the bushbots myself lately. What a bunch of wussies.

[OWK]

Because Laura wants something to advocate.

Then let her advocate something that doesn't cost me money.

I'm sick of socialists.

[livius]

the tag-team bullying

I agree - this site is becoming increasingly bitter and unpleasant, particularly with relation to certain topics(immigration, and in fact, any Bush domestic program).

The tag team nature of it is what makes me suspect that some of it is probably being conducted by Dem plants who are essentially trying to keep the more suggestible folks on this site in a state of anti-Bush hysteria.

[Kevin Curry]

Single issue you say? Let's tally them, shall we? 1) Most rapid expansion of government debt in history (yes, he's cut taxes in the immediate term, but someday this horrendous debt will fall due), 2) bone-headed amnesty-by-installment-pander plan for 20 million new illegal alien cum Democrat voters, 3) willful and knowing signing of unconstitutional criticism-stifling incumbent-protecting CFR legislation, 4) trillion dollar Medicare boondoggle pander for the elder vote, 5) increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (proud and defiant sponsor for such fine works of art as "Christ Piss" and Mapplethorpe's homoerotic photography). That's five big issues--and that's just a quick once-over.

You need a math tutor.

Bush is busting the bank trying to prove to the loony left with our money and patience that he is a "compassionate conservative."

These debacles were and are Bush's initiatives. He has proposed them in a cynical gamble that more leftists will be won over to him than he will lose in conservative voters who have been betrayed. If Bush loses, he will bear responsibility for making a very, very bad bet. Please remember that when you are grumpy and raging over a Kerry presidency.

[anniegetyourgun]

Regardless of whether or not it is a budgetary wash, there is a principle here. They need to hear from supporters.

President@whitehouse.gov

[North Coast Conservative]

My friends in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, and across the country. Gary Marx from BC'04 told me at CPAC the Bush43 would be rolling out some things that would surprise the conservative wing of the party. Looks like he was right.

At one time the Republican Party wanted to drive a stake through the heart of the National Endowment for the Arts, now it appears that Bush43 is not listening to Van Helsing and is actually breathing life back into the monster.

It appears that Bush43 and BC'04 is standing there, with there hands on their hips, saying:"I double dog dare ya to not vote for me. I can do anything, and you will put your tail between your legs and lick my fingers because you hate the alternative so much."

I ask you: Is this the man who ran four years ago as a conservative? Would you have voted for him four years ago if you knew that this administration would turn out this way? Is the tax cut and the war on terror enough to make up for all the things that are coming forward now?

In God We Trust…..Semper Fi!

[OWK]

Pains me to say it.. but "well said".

(did I just say that?)

[RJCogburn]

Making great sense, Kevbo.

[OWK]

[kristinn]

There may be some of that, but there's also a campaign to keep conservatives on the Republican plantation. Immigration and President Bush's domestic programs are what conservatives are rebeling over.

[Kevin Curry]

If Bush loses, will you ascribe any responsibility at all to him for his loss?

You are enabling a raging social-spending alcoholic and pander-addict and blaming the world for not making his life easier. He and Rove need to be figuratively kicked in their quasi-royal posteriors--not worshipped or excused--for serving up this crap. As his simpering, handwringing, ever-excusing enabler, you--not I--are his worst enemy.

Is Bush your king or your elected servant?

[from occupied ga]

Single issue you say?

Good list, but you forgot his stated support for the Feinstein semi-auto ban - a fine conservative stance (not).

[PBRSTREETGANG]

BTTT

[livius]

Did you read the Dem's proposal for immigration reform, which just came out yesterday? It's pure and total immediate amnesty.

Bush was doing a preemptive strike on that one, and on many of his other programs.

I think this arts suggestion is actually quite good - I'd love to see classic American theater taught in the schools again, to replace the "Vagina Monologues."

My feeling is not that all Bush's proposals are perfect, but that they have potential and are a genuine attempt to deal with genuine problems. They are certainly open to discussion. But irrationally rejecting any change to the status quo is going to bring back the Dems, and then we're really going to be hurting.

[ARCADIA]

If Bush loses, he will bear responsibility for making a very, very bad bet.

You are presuming that Bush actually wants a second term. Perhaps the real payoff in presidential politics is at the end of the first term?

[KantianBurke]

One can't forget how he let Bubba and his fellow crooks off the hook. They should have been brought to justice.

[OWK]

A fine a job at excuse-mongering as I've seen in some time.