My, oh my...it's such fun to see news like this: in the 2005 budget proposal, there is an increase of $18 million for the National Endowment For The Arts. Yessir, I just knew there was a reason I liked Laura Bush. A quote from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
- Laura Bush played a significant role, personally announcing a $15 million touring program called American Masterpieces while at NEA offices last week.
"I am very pleased to announce the president's strong support for this initiative and for the arts in this country," the first lady said. "Through American Masterpieces, citizens will reconnect with our nation's great artistic achievements and rich cultural heritage."
Those folks at the Cato Institute must have steam comin' outa their ears.
In fact, they do:
- "At a time when we face a $477 billion deficit and President Bush has called on Congress to restrain domestic discretionary spending, it is astounding that he would propose a double-digit increase in the budget for something as unnecessary as the National Endowment for the Arts," said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute. "If we can't restrain spending on the arts bureaucracy in a time of budget crisis, no one can take the president's rhetoric about spending restraint seriously."
That's ok, nobody takes the president's rhetoric seriously anyway.
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
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Article comments
1 - Shark
Hey, $18 million ain't much to buy a few 'liberal artsy-fartsy elite" votes in an election year.
And man, those Republicans just LOVE the NEA!
Forget the fact that they basically tried to DISMANTLE it a few years ago.
When they gained control of Congress in 1995, they cut the budget to less than $100 million, and the budget didn't move for five years because they turned it into a political hot-potato.
Remember Mapplethorpe? And who can forget Serrano's Piss Christ?
BTW: the NEA budget is $121 million this year, 31 percent lower than its peak of $176 million in 1992. Before you heap too many laurels on Laura, remember that the NEA is just playing catch-up from the Republican budget cuts in the 90s.
Laura and George are just a couple of opportunistic hypocrite hicks betting that most Americans suffer from short-term memory loss...
...which ain't a bad bet.
2 - Doc
I prefer to remember that "lump" (W's term for Laura) as 'killer' for "accidentally" offing her ex-boyfriend in the car accident.
3 - Mark Saleski
i actually think laura bush in quite sincere in her desire to have some of this stuff funded, especially in the area of libraries/reading/literacy...some of which i think can have a greater impact in the long run than "no child left behind".
4 - Shark
"...i actually think laura bush in quite sincere in her desire to have some of this stuff funded..."
Yeah, and look for *Thomas Kincaide to receive a multi-million dollar grant.
* "Painter of Light"
...and idealized, anachronistic fantasy homes for those who think things were better in the good ol' days before electricity and indoor plumbing.
5 - JR
...and idealized, anachronistic fantasy homes for those who think things were better in the good ol' days before electricity and indoor plumbing.
Or just good planning for the day when we won't have the resources to provide everybody with electricity and indoor plumbing.
6 - anth
"Yeah, and look for *Thomas Kincaide to receive a multi-million dollar grant."-
hey dickwad,
that chick was on our side-
stop standing in the way
we all ready have the left-
"its the middle stupid."
7 - ajay damle
please help us .stop international unfair-labor practices in the world.
petitioners