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."
Got it.
Interesting how you rationalize your lies about me as legitimate criticism of my 'mindless devotion.'
What's my position on CFR?
What's my opinion about the Immigration policy?
What do I think about THIS decision?
You don't know, do you? And if you guessed you'd be dead wrong.......because you're IGNORANT, OWK. And you're small, OWK........and you use your cute little lies about me to make yourself feel important with your cute little buddies.
Well, good. Feel important by mocking me in your ignorance. It reveals a whole lot about you.......what you are. And what you're not.
Look at your profile page.
It's a close to an altar of worship as anything I've ever seen.
Don't know indeed...
Bah.
Whatever GWB says?
And AGREEING with them?
hell hath truly frozen over.
It was refreshing to hear someone articulate his anger without launching into a screaming wild Howie Dean-like rant.
Haven't you heard? We're expanding them rapidly in the short-term, but only because of our devious plan to radically reduce their size in the long-term. Don't concern yourself with details like historical precedents, because this president is different. He'll do what no man has even come close to accomplishing before. Because he's dreamy. Everytime I look in his eyes I'm so proud of him...it's bringing tears to my eyes as I write. Couldn't you just eat him up in that flightsuit?
Do you honestly think that if they were in power they would accept blame for another terrorist attack? HA! They would cashier some of the military, blame the FBI, and go their merry way. Besides, they would think we wouldn't have an attack because we would be letting FRANCE have a veto power over our foreign policy.
And there is no guarantee you would get another Reagan (who also funded the NEA, the NPR, farm bills, and the Department of Education).
Most of the country is not conservative, which many people don't realize. I am the MOST conservative person in my extended family, and they are fairly normal people. Two of my sisters are centrist voters, and one sister and one brother are yellow-dog democrats. My sister the art teacher, who voted for Bush, likes this idea. My brother, the union electrician, is going to vote for Kerry if he is the nominee; he is convinced that W is out to destroy unions.
Moving too quickly and too far to the right will give us President Kerry, whether you want to believe this or not. And we won't see another Reagan for a generation, so you'd best quit looking.
'76? I was thinking more like '45.
Bush just cooked his sorry "fraud art" a**.
Who the heck is telling him what to do? He's done.
This looks alot like self-destruction, and as I see it, let it be. He must know from all his Bible reading that Armegeddon is closer than I thought, or he wouldn't be doing this stuff!
MADNESS, PURE MADNESS
Dear G.W. must be back on the bottle. (just kidding, mods.)
Take it back George. For heaven's sake, I'll give you my autographed Andy Warholla (Warhol) soup can...........it's gotta be worth a couple of bucks to you!
Help me out here, OWK. Just stop lying. You don't know what you're talking about. So shut up.
Genius, pure genius.
They don't really have a good record. Either they get us into police actions which they micro-manage and then withdraw support, or they just flat-out gut the military and load the poor troops up with social engineering assignments.
I refuse to let one get in power until they come to their senses.
Roadmap to "peace" for Israel by negotiating with terrorists, something the Democrats tried during the Clinton years.
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