The Parody Party

Yesterday, I watched Stephen Colbert make fun of the $50 million in stimulus money that is being allocated for funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.

In typical Colbert fashion, he joked about how arts don’t help anything or anyone and how Congress could find better use for the money.  He moved on and I chalked it up to Colbert’s exaggerated caricature of the Republican party.

Guess not.

Republican, apparently, are protesting the arts funding that is included in the stimulus package.  The $50 million — a fraction of the total $888 billion pacakge — has been derided as just another pet project stuffed into a bloated bill.

Why are the arts considered to be wasteful spending?  The money could be used to create jobs for artists, which is one of the key goals of the stimulus package.  I’m failing to see the difference between a job for a set designer or light technician and that of a road construction worker.  A job’s a job.

This is all separate from the clear benefits that the arts create within communities all over the country.

Georgia Republican Jack Kingston is quoted in the article as saying that “real people are out of work right now and putting $50 million in the [National Endowment for the Arts] and pretending that’s going to save jobs as opposed to putting $50 million in a road project is disingenuous”

REAL PEOPLE are out of work, Jack says.  This is opposed to fake people — like artists and musicians.

Then again, I suppose Kingston could be right.  After all, the guy knows a thing or two about questionable government spending.

Thanks for setting those pesky art-enthusiasts straight, Jack.

Tags: stimulus, The Arts