Posted on 01/28/2004 8:29:35 PM PST by 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."
HUH??? ..
Yep, and it wasn't paid for by taxpayer funds extracted by threat of imprisonment. Thanks for making our case.
But voting only for people I respect, like, and mostly agree with, is.
You have finally put me in a position like your father did. I will have to waste my vote on a 3rd party rather than vote for someone who will not protect our borders and now you want to steal more of my money to give the low life druggies in the NEA. Have you gone brain dead? Why should I have spent the time and money to go to college to get an engineering degree only for you socialists in the federal government to decide that someone in the arts is more important to be employed than me? Even though at 55 I was out of work for the first time in my working career under your administration, I hung in and supported you. Not any longer. If you think those Godless sluts in NEA deserve more employment protection than an engineer the hell with you and the republican party. If you want to get a good idea how pissed the Conservatives are with you have one of your minions read the threads on the FreeRepublic.com.
Where can I get my grant? Will Bush give me $100,000.00? I demand my $100,000.00!!!
I wish more had your attitude and beliefs. There are too many who think their job is to support a person or a party, rather than the other way around.
If Bush loses, please remember to complain to him.
In the meantime, rant on!
And we have the Bush Whitehouse actively seeking someone to run against Tancredo.
I will be changing my party affiliation shortly.
While ignoring the basic machinations of the American electoral process(two party system).
Oh well, I guess ignorance is bliss to you. That's your right to have.
Incredible. And I can "send a message" to a prize bull who sometimes poops in the yard instead of the pasture by blowing it away with a shotgun. No thanks.
So it's perfectly fine to buy votes with taxpayer money, as long as it's Republicans doing the purchasing? Why don't you grow some freaking principles? I am sick of people blindly defending every action of this liberal putz in the White House. For me, principles matter. The ends do not justify the means. Any person with integrity feels the same way. I actually respect the Democrats more than this administration because at least they tell you they're gonna bend you over.
I'm just saying that, honestly, we knew he wasn't really a conservative when we elected him.
Well since you are actively campaigning against him, I will complain to you also.
But as I said to Laz, it seems that ignorance is bliss when it comes to the electoral machinations of the American system, to many on FR.
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