Higher Arts Funding Blasted

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 7/22/02 | Christine Hall

[kattracks]

(Editor's Note: Contains language in 8th paragraph some readers may find objectionable.)

(CNSNews.com) - A government watchdog group is blasting a House vote to ratchet up spending on the National Endowment for the Arts to $126 million.

"Any member of Congress who votes for a $10 million increase in the NEA budget while the federal government runs a $160 billion deficit has lost all credibility on debt reduction," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR).

"Adding funding to the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and National Endowment for Humanities, particularly at a time of war and deficits, is obscene as much of the work funded by the NEA," said Norquist.

The House voted for the spending increase by a vote of 234 to 192, with just 20 percent of House Republicans in favor. Also part of the $19.8 billion Interior Department spending bill, the House also awarded $131 million to the National Endowment for the Humanities, up $5 million from last year.

While ATR and other groups have lamented the budget-busting projects passed by Congress this year, such criticism has failed to stem the flow of tax dollars and taxpayer obligations out of Washington.

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) earlier this year identified $20.1 billion in federal pork projects, an increase of nine percent from last year's total.

According to CAGW, the money was spread out among 8,341 projects included in the appropriations bills in fiscal year 2002 and represented an increase of 32 percent over the previous fiscal year.

The NEA has generated controversy for years, thanks in large part to taxpayer-funded works such as "Piss Christ," the photograph of a crucifix immersed in urine that received NEA funding in the mid-1990s and was subsequently attacked by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and then-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-N.Y.).

Conservatives have crusaded against the use of tax dollars for such projects but haven't been able to muster enough votes in Congress to kill NEA funding. In 1997, the House voted by a one-vote margin to eliminate funding, but the Senate and then-President Clinton prevailed in keeping the NEA alive.

This year, one of the principle opponents of NEA funding, former Rep. Steve Largent (R-Okla.), retired from Congress to run for the Oklahoma governorship.

According to NEA spokeswoman Victoria Hutter, there was not strong opposition to NEA funding this year.

"We have people in the House who spoke against increased funding [but] the dialogue was different than it has been in years past," said Hutter. "There were some conservative members of Congress who were interested in putting forth their objections, but really it was a very civil debate."

She credits lack of strident opposition to the agency's courting of Congress over the past few years, along with 1996 reforms aimed at de-funding controversial artists.

"Relations with Congress have just improved over the past few years [because] our former chairman Bill Ivey worked very closely with a whole variety of members," said Hutter.

The 1996 changes precluded the agency from funding individual artists. Now, funding flows only to organizations, with individual grants given only through literature and honorific awards.

"Those kinds of changes I know had an impact, as well," said Hutter, who noted the controversial homoerotic photographs by Robert Maplethorpe in the 1980s were funded via a grant to an organization.

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[Drango]

along with 1996 reforms aimed at de-funding controversial artists.

Huh? Then why fund these idiots...www.sfmt.org

San Francisco Mime Troupe, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
$27,000
DISCIPLINE/FIELD: Musical Theater
To support the development and production of an original musical comedy.

What does the red star mean on your logo?

We uphold socialist ideals. We're as much citizens as we are artists.