Apparently these are not. At least in the U.S. Senate. Last Friday (Feb 6), the Senate vote 73-24 to ban arts, recreation, or any other kind of leisure oriented funding from the Stimulus bill by passing an amendment offered by Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma. Like the author of the expensive and relatively un-stimulative credit for homebuyers (and real estate speculators), Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, Coburn has no intention of voting for the stimulus bill, only of damaging it.
The $50 million boost the House provided will not put the National Endowment for the Arts back to where its funding level was prior to the mid-nineties Culture Wars. But it's a start, and you can bet that money given to arts organizations prevents layoffs and hired artists, techs, and publicists -- stimulus. The anti-culture posturing in the name of "saving money" is irrational and ill-placed. Let's hope the House restores sanity to the stimulus bill.
Every executive, whether of a small dance company or a Fortune 500 conglomerate knows that sometimes you try to achieve consensus ("Bipartisanship") and sometimes you just have to do what's right and wait for your critics to get on board.
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