“An attempt by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to eliminate all arts and museum funding from the [stimulus] bill was defeated. Ironically, Sen. Coburn is the father of the outstanding young soprano Sarah Coburn, who has appeared many times at opera houses supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Last year the younger Coburn went home to Oklahoma to sing in Lakmé at the Tulsa Opera - a production made possible in part by a $15,000 grant from the NEA.” - Alex Ross

I don’t find this ironic, though. It’s extremely obvious that politicians like Coburn are just extremely cynical.

Oh, and just to put the $50 million in perspective: That’s 0.0064 percent of the total money ($787 billion or $787,000 million) to be spent. Another way to put this, if you make $50,000 per year this percentage amounts to $3.18. To see Republicans hyperventilate about this little money for the arts is utterly shameful and truly disgusting.