(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today criticized the Bush administration’s proposed increase of $18 million in the $122.5 million budget for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  A preview of his fiscal 2005 budget shows that President Bush will call for an increase of less than one percent in non-defense discretionary spending and a 9.7 percent increase in defense and homeland security.  The NEA would receive a 15 percent hike.

“With a 15 percent increase in the NEA and no offsets to finance this windfall, the White House is saying that promoting the arts is more vital than protecting the nation.  This does not bode well for holding overall non-defense spending to a one percent increase, as members of Congress will seize on this increase as an excuse to hike spending on other domestic programs,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.

“As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another person’s art.  However, tax dollars are not as subjective.    The administration obviously believes the government should be in the business of determining what has artistic value.  But it has yet to draw up a list of businesses that the government should not fund,” Schatz added.

In the new budget, NEA is scheduled to receive $140.5 million.  The increase will go towards an arts heritage program, “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius,” that will tour communities in all 50 states.  There will also be an educational initiative for schools that will include videos and study guides for jazz, Shakespeare, dance, and other forms of art.

“Anyone interested in art can go to their local museum and see comparable, if not the same exact work, that the government is going to spend $140.5 million to display.  They have the option of determining what they find to be artistic and if they choose, make a charitable donation to museums or galleries in support of their efforts,” Schatz continued.  “The NEA, however, leaves the decision of what is artistic up to bureaucrats with their own agendas.”

In the past, NEA has drawn criticism for funding questionable projects, most notably the works of Andres Serreno and Robert Mapplethorpe.  As a result, its budget was slashed to less than $100 million in 1995 after peaking in 1992 at $176 million.

“The NEA should be eliminated rather than enhanced as it does not fit within the proper role of government,” Schatz concluded.  “With a rising deficit and a war on terror, the President needs to exhibit more fiscal responsibility.  This is not the time to be sending astronauts to Mars and displaying artwork.  More now than ever, this country needs to get its fiscal priorities straight.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation's largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.