by William Craig Rice

About the author: William Craig Rice is a preceptor in expository writing at Harvard University and a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The death knell is sounding for the National Endowment for the Arts. The agency’s federal appropriation in 1996 fell by one-third, from about $150 million to about $100 million, and its appropriation may be cut again or even eliminated. The NEA is not only anathema to cultural conservatives, libertarians, evangelical Christians, and even a good number of artists. It is also likely to lose key political support as President Bill Clinton and other Democrats resolve to keep moving toward a balanced federal budget without compromising Medicare, Medicaid, education, or the environment.

But the end of the agency’s federal funding...