Conservative Republicans Propose Eliminating Arts And Culture Funding

[Emit]

It happened first in schools and is now proposed on a national scale - the continued cutting down of arts and culture funding.

A group of conservative Republicans, called the Republican Study Committee, revealed a new plan on Thursday to cut federal funding for arts down to zero. This means the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would be left in the cold. Not to mention the potential hit at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Run by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the over 150-person group's plan, the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, would "save" $167.5 million pulled from the NEA and the Humanities endowment and $445 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They are forecasting that this erasure of cultural funding would reduce federal spending by $2.5 trillion over the next decade.

~snip~

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/conservative-replublicans_n_812415.html

[Book Lover]

1. Yes, we get it.

Yes, we get it. You don't like us, despite the fact that the arts have given you everything that makes life worth living. An artist designed your Bible and your church, your guns and your television sets. But of course you don't need us. Of course.

[Occulus]

2. Republicans appear to hate everything good about humanity

I wonder why they see the world that way....

[RKP5637]

10. IMO they have a very distorted almost pathological view of the world as they

want it to be ...

[Skidmore]

3. You don't need art or culture when you have televangelists and box churches.

[MineralMan]

4. They've been threatening to do that for a very long time.

What else is new? So far, they've been unable to make it happen. I predict the same result this time.

[WinkyDink]

12. Only because there are some die-hard RICH who support the arts. When they go,.......

[Lucian]

5. So, cut it from schools and now cut it from the public.

How in the Hell, then, are people going to see/view/appreciate art? What it comes down to is that they want to cut money from something they don't understand, either because they don't want to understand it, or they're too stupid to understand it.

[Enrique]

6. I question their math

Run by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the over 150-person group's plan, the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, would "save" $167.5 million pulled from the NEA and the Humanities endowment and $445 from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They are forecasting that this erasure of cultural funding would reduce federal spending by $2.5 trillion over the next decade.

[xchrom]

8. math was never really their strong suit.

it's just that every one has said they are good at math because they are conservative.

[qazplm]

9. Math funding for congressmen also cut

to replaced by interns with calculators (19.99 or less of course).

[jdadd]

13. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)

Is my Rep.....just another conservative tool....I don't know why I still live here, other than,I own my home,and can't afford to move anywhere else. The stupid around me really Burns ARRRRRRRR!!!!

[Liberal Gramma]

7. Yet they can always find money for bombs

[RKP5637]

11. Yeah, they love that, it's their view of fine art. n/t

[rbnyc]

14. We've saved the NEA before.

We'll have to do it again.

I'm an arts & culture org fundraiser. My organization has a $7.6 milion impact on the local economy, attracting shoppers, employing residents, and using local venders. This is stupid.

Edit: accidently deleted a line before plus I can't type or see.

[saras]

15. Makes sense in context

If you want to eliminate the arts and culture from the human experience, it makes total sense to stop funding them.

I mean, who needs culture anyways? Haven't they demonstrated that they can live without functional law, without functional language, without functional human relationships?

It was a mistake to become mammalian.

Hell, it was probably a mistake to ally with other single-celled creatures to become multicellular in the first place.

Returning to reptilian ethics is only the first step.

See, that's their objection to 'evolution' - not that it's FACTUALLY wrong, but that it's MORALLY wrong.

[old mark]

16. K&R-Pat Buchannan ran for president with this as part of his platform...

Shut down the NEA, and fumigate the building...according to Pat, art has no place in the US, and those who promote-or worse make-it are sick, perverted anti Americans who should be in re-education camps...
None of the current GOP bullshit is new-Pat said it ALL before.
Link to his campaign in 2000-http://www.infoplease.com/spot/patbuchanan1.html

FWIW, I understand Palin was a Buchanan for President supporter in those days. I am sure she stole some of her performance style from him, and the idea that you can make lots of money from "contributions" by espousing anger and hate.
Pat used to stand in front of a crowd, holding an AR 15 rifle above his head, chanting "Ruth Bader Ginsburrrrrrg" and "Lock and Load" for 5 minutes at a time, grinning all the while. He had lots of money in his campaign fund, plus matching funds from the federal government/taxpayers.

mark