Are these guys so dumb that they don't know that the arts includes workers who have jobs, pay mortgages, pay bills, buy groceries…and even have unions?

As Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) pointed out on the Senate floor yesterday, nearly all of the objections to the pending stimulus package are directed at a small number of programs that make up a fraction of 1 percent of the total stimulus measures in the bill. Perhaps no program remaining in the package has drawn more attention than the $50 million included for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) was typical of the opponents to the stimulus legislation who seized on the arts to discredit the overall package; he told the House chamber, “It included wasteful government spending that has nothing to do with creating jobs. As I asked on this floor last week, what does $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts have to do with creating jobs in Indiana?” Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) was even more emphatic, saying, “We have real people out of work right now and putting $50 million in the NEA and pretending that’s going to save jobs as opposed to putting $50 million in a road project is disingenuous.”