Solution to Arts Funding Is in the Stars

America’s messy debate over funding for the National Endowment for the Arts rages again. Conservatives and traditionalists are outraged by taxpayer monies being lavished on the sometimes perverse and obscene. Artistic purists and their allies on the left not only yearn instinctively for government programs but are especially partial to federal dollars feeding creative endeavors across the country.

U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the NEA and has expressed shock at sexually explicit projects receiving support from the agency. Funding for the NEA has already been reduced to $99 million and is now threatened further. President Clinton (perhaps enthralled by the movie stars who slept in the Lincoln Bedroom) has asked for an increase to $133 million.

Alec Baldwin, actor, left-wing activist and husband to Kim Basinger, has made saving the NEA his personal cause. He told the New York Times, “I would love all art to be funded, for the federal government to spend $1 billion on the arts . . . .” He has led delegations to Congress to press his case but did not help his cause by recently opining that “the people who run the Republican Party in this country are really rotten, nasty, horrible human beings.” (In contrast, say, to the folks who make movies lionizing the squalor of Larry Flynt’s life).

The debate rages on--soon to come to a head. One side will claim artistic freedom; the other, repugnance for taxpayer-funded trash.

But this culture war could end today, and in a way that would satisfy both poles in the debate while providing millions more to support America’s artists. Quite simply: because the arts and entertainment community is among the most lavishly rich in our country, it should embark on a national effort to provide for its own. Applying a tiny fraction of its massive wealth can end the harsh criticism of its adversaries and their oversight and second-guessing--a win-win for all parties.

Anyone watching the Academy Awards show last month would have gotten ear and eyefuls of the opulence that middle America supports when it treks to the theater house. News reports told of a poolside tree bar with bottles of Dom Perignon hanging as lanterns. Wall Street Journal reporter Lisa Bannon counted 800 waiters for the Academy’s tony Governor’s Ball, serving up caviar, lobster and smoked salmon on “Oscar-shaped Matzo.” One starlet had a $3,000 hairdresser bill--a fitting complement to the $15 apiece rare Rothschild orchids flown in from Hawaii and the 1,100 limousine drivers standing by.

You get the picture. A vulgar display of conspicuous consumption and profuse applications of big-time bucks.

But this is chump change for the entertainment glitterati. Hauling out the Forbes List of the 400 Richest People in America, we find that a mere nine of them have a net worth aggregating nearly $18 billion. The source of their money? Entertainment and media. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg combine for a cool $3 billion on their own. Others in this elite group include Michael Eisner of the Walt Disney Co., record mogul David Geffen, and Dreamworks bankroller Jeffrey Katzenberg. Rounding out the starting nine are John Kluge of Metromedia Co., Sumner Redstone (heard of Blockbuster video?), Ted Turner and--only 42nd on the list--Oprah Winfrey.

Now, why should a cab driver in Santa Ana, a barber in San Clemente, a salesperson from Irvine or a schoolteacher in Yorba Linda subsidize the arts through exactions by the federal tax collector? Average folks pay fat fees for movies, CDs, rock concerts, and cable TV. These folks struggle to make mortgage payments on modest homes. It’s only right that those who cut the fat side of the arts and entertainment hog should bear responsibility to support their own cause.

Disband the National Endowment for the Arts and replace it with the National Creative Arts Foundation. Let it be funded through private (tax-deductible) donations by those already in the artistic arena. No more federal watchdogs. A liberated creative community. Massive new arts funding.

Yo, Baldwin and Hollywood. You’ve already shown us the money; now step up and show us the way.