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."

[A Navy Vet]

Well, it looks like for the first time in decades I will be sitting this one out. Bush has finally lost my vote, the CA GOP has betrayed us again by backing a Sacremento appeaser, and my district is a Republican lock. How can I considered myself a member in good standing with Veteran's for Constitutional Restoration (VetsCoR) if I vote against the very principles it stands for?

However, I WILL continue to actively work for those principles through VetsCoR.

[Dane]

The link you posted in your reply #749 is from 1994.

[OWK]

This dont make any sense. Dont vote for Bush, heck you might as well dont for the senate and house too. That's the beauty of the constitution, the republican senators and representatives dont have to pass anything just because of the R next to Bush's name. That is being overlooked by everyone on this tread.

You keep repeating this as if it had any bearing on the discussion.

It doesn't.

The fact that congress has the power to prevent Bush from being more socialist, does nothing to mitigate the fact that Bush deserves to be condemned for his advocacy of greater socialism.

[MJY1288]

I was going to correct you, but I didn't feel the need to get anal :-)

[afropick]

That charge should be rebuffed by those in congress who was willing to hold up a 760 billion dollar tax cut and whittle it down to a 350 billion tax cut. The congress knows how to that, but why aren't they willing to do that to all these other bills. Or they can just sit on it and whither on the vine.

[Eva]

Well, not exactly fixed, but maybe ameliorate the damage that was done by the gov't interference in the first place.

I don't really see the arts as a market. The best artistic work was usually done under a patronage system which didn't depend on a market value. The problem resulted when gov't handouts were given without any reservation or critical evaluation.

[Area51]

Of course, he owes neither a job. I just find it a little amusing when people call him a socialist in one breath and complain that they are not employed "under [his] administration" in the next.

748 posted on 01/29/2004 9:07:46 AM PST by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet (BUSH/CHENEY 2004...the alternative is too frightening to contemplate.)
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Well here sweet pea, go do some investigating and tell me who created the most jobs in the last 4 years?

Hint: US Government!

[gatorbait]

At this point, I'd be happy if he'd just quit dumping piping hot cups of it in my lap.

Ah c'mon, admit it ,,We love that stuff.. keeps us alert and VERY awake!

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

You're going to stand by and watch a man like John Kerry be elected President of the United States?

I know you're angry about this thing, and I understand why - but that is extremely disappointing to hear.

[afropick]

Then please condemn the all of them. I am sorry if I sound like a broken record. But being from chicago, I have seen firsthand how career politicians build fortunes by promising the world to everyone and then come up some of the most ridculous legislating I have ever seen.

[gatorbait]

irregardless To be accurate it is "regardless". Carry on . Part-time vocabulary Nazi out. :-)

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Does the U.S. Government owe you a job?

[Alas Babylon!]

Well, it looks like for the first time in decades I will be sitting this one out.

I hear you man, but I can't sit it out. I just can't live through another democrat administration. This election, I'll be voting to keep the democrats out of power. I do think, however, that we should be trying hard, as conservatives, to start grooming a real conservative, electable person to run for Republican president in 2008. What conservative can get elected in 2008? If there is none, what chance does our country have?

[windchime]

"......and not simply whether or not the stolen money is spent on things which don't offend them."

This entire discussion regards what you refer to as 'stolen money' being delivered to the doorstep of the NEA. Frankly, I would like to see exactly what IS being proposed rather than depending upon media reports.

[OWK]

Well, not exactly fixed, but maybe ameliorate the damage that was done by the gov't interference in the first place.

Let me get this straight.

You propose government interference, as a cure for government interference?

I don't really see the arts as a market.

Then you either don't understand the word market, or you're a socialist.

The best artistic work was usually done under a patronage system which didn't depend on a market value.

Patrons CHOOSE to patronize artists.

They are customers.

The problem resulted when gov't handouts were given without any reservation or critical evaluation.

The problem started when government handouts were given AT ALL.

[MJY1288]

Brace yourself for an idiot lesson from the Professor, a Gold Medal winning Professor

[PattonReincarnated]

I don't understand this kind of spending. 1.) Conservatives oppose the wasteful spending on art that is really trash. 2.) Moderates oppose the spending too, but could care less about what trash it is spent on. 3.) The people that would want this spending would never vote for a Republican. So what does it buy Bush?

[windchime]

"What do people have against Shakespeare?"

I don't think he was a 'true conservative'. :)

[OWK]

Then please condemn the all of them.

I am more than happy to condemn the gutless congress, and do so regularly.

But this particular abomination was proposed by the President.

[Area51]

Does the U.S. Government owe you a job?

772 posted on 01/29/2004 9:26:51 AM PST by DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet (BUSH/CHENEY 2004...the alternative is too frightening to contemplate.)
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Nope, and would never lower myself to ask for one.