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."
That's why he has 91% of the Republicans. FR is not the conservative universe and just because some people who have disliked Bush post criticism of every single issue and post loudly, doesn't mean you are the base.
Screaming and kneejerking does not make it so.
Yet, did the far right stop to appreciate what he had accomplished? No. On this forum I have seen complaints that the Partial Birth Abortion bill was a sham and he should do more, that the tax increases weren't good enough, that he was weak when dealing with China, that he should have vetoed the farm bill, etc. etc....all the while telling us that they won't vote for him again.
Now, as far as the NEA, it seems to me that there was a change in its direction a couple of years ago, and a new director appointed. The really insulting stuff from the NEA was several years ago, and I haven't read anything lately that got me riled. Perhaps without our knowing the NEA has gone back to what was originally intended...a funding of arts programs for areas that don't have those types of opportunities. I can't say that I know, and perhaps this merits some investigation on my part.
Let's wait and see what's actually going on. It could be far different from what many are assuming.
You wait. With both parties in a headlong race to outright communism -- and loyal party members cheering them on -- this level of economic freedom that we enjoy in 2004 is something you will wistfully look back on as the 'Good Old Days'.
Why do you recognize ANY criticism of Bush as "screaming and knee-jerking"?
Or could it be that you recognize the psychological benefit of using such terms to describe those who criticize your man?
[Then feel free to ignore me.]
LOL! I've never such desperation in proving their virtues to an alleged "nobody".
You're a bad boy to tease the 'tards like that!
How far we have fallen
What with the royal "we". You think that. I look at the current situation and the current modern American electoral system and deal with that(there are two viable parties, demo and Pubbie).
Carry on with your morose musings.
;^)
That would make a great tagline fer ya Laz, That way people that haven't already conversed with you will not have to go through the agonizing experience of getting to know your pompous, condescending style of posting :-)
I haven't posted criticism of Bush on every issue, nor loudly.
Christian conservatives have every right to be suspect of the NEA, and to worry about increasing its budget.
At the same time, I fail to see how this wins him any votes from the "road kill" in the middle.
C'mon... let's be honest here.
You look at the progressive socialist long march from both parties (republican and democrat alike)... and you really don't care at all.
It means nothing to you.. does it?
Be honest...
Get yer head out of the projecter.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Barney's part of the lawn need scooping?
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