Two minutes

Just a reminder to take two minutes today to contact your U.S. Senator regarding inclusion of a $50 million package to the NEA in the stimulus plan.

Americans for the Arts make it easy, just click here.

The arts are still a long ways away from the auto industry and others in terms of lobby power and that continues to create issues for us. For instance, Backstage's blog pulled a quote from an NPR interview with Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation: "Government policies that make people and workers more productive will increase productivity. But simply borrowing money out of the economy in order to transfer it to some artists doesn't increase the economy's productivity rate. It doesn't help workers create more goods and services, and it won't create economic growth."

So for one, the NEA is incredibly hard to get funding from. Organizations go through a very impressive vetting process to obtain funding. Out of all of the 'stimulus' spending that is going on, the NEA may be one of the more fiscally cautious organizations out there. My other issue is the 'some artists' comment. I'm appalled and am going to send the Foundation an e-mail. And I fiscally believe in many of the same principles that the Foundation supports on their website.