BUSH proposes more spending

[rainstorm]

Bush to seek big budget increase for National Endowment for the Arts

By ROBERT PEAR
New York Times


WASHINGTON -- 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 demonstrate the administration's commitment to the arts, aides said.

Administration officials, including White House budget experts, said that the president would propose an increase of $15 million to $20 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That would be the largest increase in two decades and far more than the most recent increases approved by Congress, 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 conference with Mrs. Bush on Thursday, Dana Gioia, the poet who is chairman of the endowment, says, "You will be present for an important day in NEA history."

The new chairman, Gioia, has tried to move beyond the political culture wars that swirled around the agency for years. He has cultivated support among influential members of Congress, including conservative Republicans like Reps. Charles H. Taylor and Sue Myrick of North Carolina.

Gioia (pronounced JOY-uh) has held workshops around the country, in places that had received few grants, to explain how local arts organizations can apply for assistance.

Public support for the arts was hotly debated in the 1990s. Conservatives complained that the agency was financing obscene or sacrilegious works by artists like Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano. Former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., repeatedly tried to eliminate the agency, saying the recipients of its grants were "contemptuous of traditional moral standards."

For his part, Gioia has said his goal is to "bring the best art possible to the largest possible cross-section of Americans."

Some of the new money sought by Bush would expand initiatives with broad bipartisan support, including 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. For example, an administration official said, students might attend performances by the Martha Graham Dance Company.

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 for the performing arts, said, "We'll be fighting tooth and nail for the increase."

Some conservatives, like Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., vowed to oppose the increase. Even without support from the government, he said, "art would thrive in America."

Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., who is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Arts Caucus, said she was delighted to learn of Bush's proposal.

"There's nothing in the world that helps economic development more than arts programs," Slaughter said in an interview. "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."

In a separate interview, Tancredo expressed dismay.

"As a member of the House Budget Committee," Tancredo said, "I know that we are looking at record deficits and potential cuts in all kinds of programs. 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."

conservatives are getting restless, mr president. isnt there anything you can CUT in govt?

[j]

I'm frankly disgusted by the special interest spending projects myself, but I keep telling myself, that if the likes of John Kerry get in, that the Budget we are likely to see from him, given all that he claims he will do, will dwarf the Bush budget significantly.

I'd like to see Bush get back to cutting these budgets that the Republican controlled Congress worked so hard to downsize in the later part of the 90's.

[rainstorm]

i agree. are we at the point where NO politician cares about the taxpayrer?

[OtherHD]

i agree. are we at the point where NO politician cares about the taxpayrer?

Well look who just caught up to the present!! Where have you been the last 50 years?

[rainstorm]

its a welfare program for idots who cant produce art that will sell in the free market. remember the christ in a jar of urine? what is bush thinking?

[GalvestonDuck]

What?


What????




WHAT??????



Back up! Hold on! Wait just a minute! What on earth is going on with George!?!?!

First, immigrants. Now, the arts and croissant crowd?

Is this a dream? Is this part of a Days of our Lives storyline? He's an imposter, right?

*shaking head*

[Lindaloo]

His move to the left bothers me, especially with the amnesty deal. But, I still support him.

[cycloneye]

I think that this if it happens it shows that the republicans will lose the election themselves not that the democrats are better.

[rainstorm]

i agree. the presidents support is getting very soft. lots of people po'ed on talk radio today. he needs to do somehting that sounds conservative.

[Rainband]

I think someone needs to send him a dictionary so he can look up the word Priority

[rainstorm]

It's Not Working!

January 29, 2004


On Thursday, I took two calls from Philadelphia on the Bush proposal to increase the National Endowment for the Arts' budget. (See: Who Needs the NEA?) As part of his continuing strategy to peel off Democrat voters by growing government, Bush wants to force all of us to give the NEA $15 to $20 million in 2004. Where in the Constitution does it say the federal government will fund art? If we like it, we can fund it on our own.

I can only explain what I think is happening. I can't explain why the White House thinks their strategy is working when it's clearly not. Bush 41 didn't have a strategy, as one caller mentioned when comparing the two presidents. Bush 43 does - and I'm sad to say it's taken the shape of outspending Bill Clinton on the domestic side. This immigration bill and the $400 billion (Now $540b) Medicare entitlement makes conservative voters feel taken for granted.

The Big Theory, softening people's view of conservatism by making Americans work more for government and less for themselves, isn't working. How can it? If you act like a liberal to get Democrat votes, you can't do something conservative when you win without losing those new voters. Bush requested $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa and let Ted Kennedy write an education bill that spent more on "the children" than ever, and they still rip him to shreds on those issues. You know, Republicans told us that we needed to give them control of the House, Senate and White House to get something done.



from rush

[stormchazer]

Sh#t, he is a friggin Democrat....Sheesh!!

[JCT777]

This is not good. Not good at all.