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Re: The arts . . . more answers for Leslie Phillips

In <33850175@vixen.Dartmouth.EDU>, on 07/02/97 at 01:11 PM,
   Leslie.E.Phillips@Dartmouth.EDU (Leslie E. Phillips) said:

<snippage>

>7)  Of course the arts will "survive" without the NEA; that's quite a
>false issue.

I don't think it is a "false issue" at all.  Have you read any of Jane
Alexander's congressional testimony?  Do you recall the charge that
the GOP wanted to "kill Big Bird" when funding for PBS was being
discussed?  Advocates for continued funding of the arts are completely
shameless in attempting to frighten the taxpayers with such rhetoric
(as if the Sesame Street marketing machine could not survive without
putting its hand in my pocket)....

> The questions are whether the promotion of the arts is
>a legitimate federal government goal (and if not, then we probably
>ought to dismantle the many other federal agencies Kanak lists,
>starting with the Smithsonian and the military bands -- private money
>could support all that stuff, right?);

If your only real objection to elimination of NEA funding is that we
should eliminate other, similar programs, cool--let's rock! However,
it does appear that you are using this argument not to justify
de-funding the NEA at all, but to justify *continuing* to fund it so
long as these other programs are funded as well.  As I mentioned in an
earlier post, this sort of argument just leads to paralysis:  we can't
ever cut a program because there is some other, similar program which
is *not* being cut.  Question:  Why should we be discussing the
Smithsonian, military bands, etc. with regard to renewed funding for
NEA?  Oughtn't those discussions be separate?

>whether *this* agency as presently conceived delivers quality for
>the dollar;

Les, you've been living in Taxachusetts too long!  ;-)  I could not
possibly care less whether NEA "delivers quality for the dollar." It
is inconceivable that it does so to a more effective degree than those
same dollars distributed privately.  I want *the government* to
"deliver quality for the dollar" in such areas as national defense and
social welfare, not culture....

>and whether its
>shorcomings are so grave that abolition, rather than repair, is
>necessary.  With due respect, I don't think Kanak makes the case.

With due respect, I believe that she does....

>Les Phillips

Terrance Shuman
Bishop LeBlond Memorial High School
St. Joseph, Missouri
References:
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