2012 Presidential Candidates Arts Positions – Americans for the Arts

2012 Presidential Candidates Arts Positions

	Barack Obama Joe Biden Democratic Nominees	Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Republican Nominees
Candidate would maintain or increase federal support of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.	Yes Proposed increase of $9 million for National Endowment for the Arts. -FY 13 NEA budget request, Rpt p.2 / PDF p. 6 -FY 13 NEH budget request, Rpt p.11/PDF p. 14	No “Reduce subsidies for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.” -Romney/Ryan website –Los Angeles Timesarticle
Candidate would maintain or increase federal support of museums and libraries.	Yes Proposed increase of $9 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities and level funding of $232 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. -FY 13 IMLS budget request, Rpt/PDF p.12	Unknown Congressman Ryan’s House-passed budget calls for eliminating the Institute of Museum and Library Services, but it is unclear what Gov. Romney’s position is. – Ryan’s FY2013 budget, Rpt p.88 / PDF p.96
Candidate would maintain or increase federal support for public broadcasting.	Yes Proposed level funding of $445 million for Corporation for Public Broadcasting. -FY 13 CPB budget request	No “Reduce Subsidies for…the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.” -Romney/Ryan website -10/3/12 presidential debate transcript
Candidate would maintain or increase Title I funding, which includes eligibility for arts education.	Yes Proposed to reauthorize current Title I program, with level funding. -FY13 budget request, Rpt p18 / PDF p 22	Unknown Proposes to change Title I funding by expanding choice for eligible students to use federal funds to pay for public, charter, or private schools. It is unclear what impact this would have on arts education Title I funding. -Romney education plan, Rpt p.23 / PDF p. 24
Candidate would maintain support of national and community service, which includes eligibility for arts and music service.	Yes Proposed increase of 1 percent to $1.1 billion for Corporation for National & Community Service agency budget. -FY 13 CNCS budget request	Unknown Congressman Ryan’s House-passed budget calls for eliminating the Corporation for National and Community Service, but it is unclear what Gov. Romney’s position is. – Ryan’s FY2013 budget, Rpt p.88 / PDF p.96
Candidate maintains current incentives for charitable giving to 501(c)(3) organizations, such as a local nonprofit arts institution.	No The Obama plan maintains the ability for households to deduct charitable gifts, but he proposes reducing the value of the deduction from 35 percent to 28 percent for those households that make more than $250,000. -FY 2010-13 budget request, blog statement	No Gov. Romney has suggested maintaining a deduction for charitable gifts, but he has also proposed combining those charitable deductions with other tax deductions, such as mortgage interest, all of which would be limited by an overall cap that could jeopardize incentives to donate. – 10/16/12 presidential debate transcript
National party platform includes a positive position on the arts and arts education.	Yes “We will continue to support public funding for the National Endowment for the Arts… and for programs providing art and music education…” – 9/4/12 DNC platform, p.16	No GOP platform was silent on these issues. – 8/28/12 GOP platform

In addition to this new report, you should have received links to our newly released 2012 Congressional Arts Report Card for grades on incumbent Members of Congress as well as access to our collection of completed candidate surveys from non-incumbents.