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Stimulating the arts

Are you suggesting that somehow if you work in [the arts], it isn't real when you lose your job, your mortgage or your health insurance? We're trying to treat people who work in the arts the same way as anybody else.

On Friday, Wisconsin Representative David Obey (a Democrat, unsurprisingly) successfully argued on the House floor to include the arts in the stimulus plan.  Though the earlier plan that passed through the Senate did not include any arts funding, the plan that Obama will sign includes $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, which would be able to pass the money along to museums, theaters and art centers. (Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma had tried to bar these organizations from receiving stimulus money in an amendment that lumped them with casinos, golf courses, and swimming pools as "wasteful, non-stimulative" projects.)

While arts funding has long been a point of contention and a part of the culture war between Democrats and Republicans, the arts industry provides 6 million jobs, $30 billion in tax revenue and $166 billion in annual economic impact; it's also at a 12.5% unemployment rate, according to the NYTimes article that reported NEA's stimulus funding. As in other sectors, the full impact of the current economy on the arts is still unknown, but likewise, the stimulus funding—though it won't be a quick fix—will be a step towards recovery.

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