The problem is that there are no checks and balances between Congress and the Executive branch. A Republican Congress made Clinton's two terms a better Presdency. And Republican Presidents serve the country better when there is a Democratic Congress. But when one party dominates these two branches dysfunction sets in.

I saw a paper analyzing the budgets of state governments that tends to support this theory.

I personally wish there was still someone like Gingrich in the House to marshall the real fiscal conservatives that are still there. I still fondly remember the Contract with America. The Senate is almost a lost cause, and I also remember all the Contract with America proposals coming out of the House and being gleefully shot down in the Senate.

That being said, I don't have a particular problem with a small amount of federal funding devoted to supporting the arts, so long as the private sector dominates. Publically-funded support for the arts does leverage a net positive economic benefit and improves community quality of life, in spite of some of the isolated examples and anecdotes of bad choices made by the NEA.

Philosophically, I don't think art funding is the province of government at all. For starters, who decides who gets what? Already politics is a factor. But even if you do have some public funding of art, this (like a whole shitload of other things) should be the province of local governments. It is not a Federal issue. While you can twist the Constitution to try and justify a lot of Federal growth, there is no way you can remotely find "supporting the arts" as a function of Federal government under the Constitution.

The issue with the Bush proposal is not the amount of money, which amounts to pocket change in the Federal Budget. But for those who believe in limiting the growth of government, the NEA has long been touted as an example of a useless Federal budget item, and its abolishment has been a symbolic goal of conservative Republicans for years.

I pretty much gave up on it when I realized even Reagan, after 8 years, had not managed to eliminate a single Federal agency or program.