They're Talking About Stripping Out the $50MM For The NEA

[stopbush]

because assholes like Mike Pence are whining about it.

It is well known that spending on the arts provides one of the greatest RsOI that one could ever hope from tax payer money. Low estimates show that every $1 spent on the arts generates an additional $1.85 in ancillary income. Some studies put that multiplier as high as a $7 return for every $1 spent.

But like gays and atheists, the arts are still a legitimate whipping boy in these United States, most likely because so many gays and atheists populate the ranks of the artistic.

Isn't it just like a Republican to go after a $50MM drop in the bucket when hundreds of billions of dollars are under discussion?

[PVnRT]

1. But...MAPPLETHORPE!!!!!

Seriously, that's about their only argument.

[madrchsod]

2. jesus on a stick is their concept of art

[villager]

3. It is exactly like them....

n/t

[EFerrari]

5. They attack the arts in every way possible and then are somehow surprised

that their own ventures there never work out. Idiots.

[SteppingRazor]

4. The $50M for the NEA was probably just a negotiating sop anyway...

to be cut from the deal in return for Republican votes.

[stopbush]

6. Yet, I distinctly remember a piece on 60 Minutes not too long ago

where Rs had embraced the arts as a cash generator for their local districts, with opera houses and ballet companies springing up all over red-state America.

Have they forgotten so quickly, or are we just down to the few remaining rabid knuckle-draggers in the Republic Party?

[SteppingRazor]

8. Yes, we are, as you put it, down to the few remaining rabid knuckle-draggers ...

at least, that's true of the House. After two straight cycles (and possibly a third in 2010, though it won't be nearly as hard-hitting as the last two) of severe losses, the Republican congressmen left in the House are those from extremely red districts. There is almost no moderation left among the House Republicans. For example, there is now not a single, solitary House Republican from New England. Not one. What's left are the most reactionary, and their votes for Democratic bills will only come with a price.

[4lbs]

7. As Robert Gibbs said, the GOP is whining about $700 million total.

That's 7/10 of one percent.

It's like saying, I like 99.3% of this bill, but because of the 0.7% I don't like, I'm voting against it, and denying creating millions of jobs.