Jan 24th, 2011
The LA Times ran with news today of looming Republican slash and burn proposals for the arts. Early in the piece is this:
"Any way you want to describe it, the Republican Study Committee, made up of about 165 GOP members of the House of Representatives, on Thursday announced a budget-cutting plan aimed at slashing federal spending, and it calls for the elimination of the nation's two leading makers of government arts grants: the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities."
What's buried at the very end of the article is this:
"A small federal investment that's important to the health of the nonprofit arts sector helps sustain its 5.7 million jobs and the $30 billion in annual returns to federal, state and local coffers that those workers pay in taxes.”
What's a direct threat to 5.7 million jobs, give or take, when you have a chance to strike a blow against culture?
