From: "Mike Huckabee" <newsletter@mikehuckabee.com>
Date: Mar 23, 2017 9:09 AM
Subject: A conservative plea for the NEA
To: <faigerayzel@gmail.com>
Cc:
The message you have just received was delivered by Mike Huckabee and includes a message from Huck PAC, his political action committee.
Robin,
Donald Trump wasn't my first choice for president. I was. But he was my second choice, and I'm proud that I supported him. In tackling the federal budget, he faces a debt that has doubled to $20?trillion in the past eight years. No doubt a chainsaw seems more appropriate to the task at hand than a carving knife, but I would urge my president and friend to hold back from one tiny area of the budget whose elimination would cost far more than it would save.
Funding for the National Endowment for the Arts might seem expendable — especially given how often celebrity artists insult and even threaten the president. But such hateful high-dollar Hollywood and music-industry stars don't receive anything from the NEA, and they shouldn't. Not because of their insufferable political whining, but because they get rich selling their talents to the highest bidder in the private sector. I have zero interest in spending a dime of tax money to prop up those who hate the president and the tens of millions who elected him.
I do care greatly about the real recipients of endowment funds: the kids in poverty for whom NEA programs may be their only chance to learn to play an instrument, test-drive their God-given creativity and develop a passion for those things that civilize and humanize us all. They're the reason we should stop and recognize that this line item accounting for just 0.004 percent of the federal budget is not what's breaking the bank.
Participation in the arts leads to higher grade-point averages and SAT scores, as well as improvements in math skills and spatial reasoning. Do we want students who are less likely to drop out of school and more likely to have academic success, particularly in math and science? Music and art deliver, especially for students likely to get lost in an education assembly line that can be more Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" than about creative thinking and problem solving. Creativity finds cures for diseases, creates companies such as Apple and Microsoft and, above all, makes our culture more livable.
Many children get their only access to music and the arts via grants made by the NEA — 40 percent of which go to high-poverty neighborhoods, while 36 percent reach underserved people, such as veterans and those with disabilities. In fiscal 2016, NEA grants went to nearly 16,000 communities, in every congressional district in the country.
But if the decision is to be made on purely economic grounds, consider the case laid out by advocates Earle I. Mack, Randall Bourscheidt and Robert L. Lynch in a recent op-ed in the Hill: The arts are a $730 billion industry, representing 4.2 percent of our gross domestic product — more than transportation, tourism and agriculture. The nonprofit side of the arts alone generates $135 billion in economic activity, supporting 4.1 million jobs. President Trump rightfully wants to end the U.S. trade imbalance, but the American arts generated a $30?billion trade surplus in 2014, on the strength of $60 billion in exports of various arts goods.
In the past, the NEA largely subsidized individual artists, which essentially placed the government in the role of sponsor of some artists and censor of others. Thanks to reform in the 1990s, however, 40 percent of NEA funds are now channeled directly to states, to be matched and distributed, with the rest going directly to communities, arts councils, arts organizations and select individuals. This has empowered localities to offer real participation to those who otherwise would have no avenue to music or the arts.
I truly want the government to stop wasting my tax money. I want it to stop funding things that don't work and things that get funded only because they are some congressman's pet project or have a powerful lobby behind them. To some, it may seem as though the $147.9 million allocated to the NEA in fiscal 2016 is money to be saved. But to someone such as me — for whom an early interest in music and the arts became a lifeline to an education and academic success — this money is not expendable, extracurricular or extraneous. It is essential.
If it seems unusual that a conservative Republican would advocate for music and the arts, don't be so surprised. The largest increase in arts funding ever came under President Richard Nixon, and when budget hawks thought about cutting the minuscule funding of the NEA in the 1980s, it was no less than President Ronald Reagan who stepped in to make sure those in our poorest neighborhoods continued to have access to this road to academic success and meaningful way to express their creative gifts.
I'm for cutting waste and killing worthless programs. I'm not for cutting and killing the hope and help that come from creativity.
Sincerely,
Mike Huckabee
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And in case you missed these:
The Future
By Mike Huckabee
Democrats obviously never saw Hillary's loss coming, and here's another thing that might blindside them, considering all their high-horse rhetoric about being "on the right side of history" and "demographics as destiny" assuring their rise to power forever and ever, since minorities and young people will always be liberal.
World War II and the Depression created the largest generation of conservatives in US history. They created the Post-War boom, and years of peace and plenty produced several liberal generations who came to power in the '90s. Their policies gave us the economic woes, crushing debt, bloated government, reduced freedom, hostile identity politics, diminished job opportunities and national security problems that the current youngest generation (dubbed Generation Z) has grown up with. They are now 70 million strong, and some just voted for the first time in 2016. Several studies have recently been published of the political views of this youngest generation in the US and UK, and liberals might want to sit down or take a hit of "medicinal" pot before reading further.
Eight out of 10 member of Generation Z identify themselves as "fiscally conservative" and prefer saving money to spending. In the UK, nearly 60 percent rated their views on transgender rights, same-sex marriage and legalized marijuana as "conservative" or "moderate," compared to 83% of Millennials who are "quite liberal" or "very liberal" on those issues. Just like the Greatest Generation, the members of Generation Z are reacting to being brought up in tougher times by getting tougher, more pragmatic and more conservative. Heck, they're even 10 times more likely than Millennials to reject tattoos and body piercings!
Read more at the link. This could provide ultimate proof of the enduring power of the bad example. Of course, it could also partly reflect the fact that conservative parents are more likely to have children than to abort them. If you want a real lesson in how "demographics is destiny," here's one: The future belongs to those who actually produce the next generation.
History Repeating Itself
By Mike Huckabee
It's hard for me to believe that shopping for shoes online is that popular (how do you buy shoes without trying them on to see if they hurt your feet?) or that any store named "Payless" wouldn't be a success. But Payless Shoes is reportedly preparing to file for bankruptcy protection and close several hundred stores while it reorganizes. Meanwhile, the corporate owner of Sears and Kmart issued an annual report listing $4.2 billion in debt and no annual profit since 2010 and expressing "substantial doubt" about their "ability to continue as a going concern."
It's a big concern that so many retail jobs are going, all right, but the big unanswered question is what to do about it. Sears became a giant because its revolutionary mail order catalogs made it possible for Americans to shop from home and not have to take the horse and buggy to buy supplies. That put a lot of mom and pop general stores out of business. Ironically, the Internet is now doing the same thing to Sears. This is the retail equivalent of robots replacing factory jobs. Fighting both is like trying to stop evolution. Unless Americans suddenly rediscover the joys of shopping in person, it might not be long before big box stores and malls join the horse and buggy in the history books.
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Message from Huck PAC:
HUCK PAC NEEDS FINANCIAL HELP: Support conservative Republicans in 2017 and beyond. Help us raise an additional $17,233 in March by chipping in $25 today or with a donation in the amount you can afford! Thank you!
CONTRIBUTE HERE
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