President Bush plans to push for a dramatic increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. The $120 Million program uses taxpayer funds (seized at the point of a gun) to purchase "art" that has no monetary value on the free market.

Administration officials, including White House budget experts, said that the president would propose an increase of $15 million to $20 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. That would be the largest increase in two decades and far more than the most recent increases approved by Congress, about $500,000 for 2003 and $5 million for this year.

The funding increase is part of the "dollars for votes" program that President Bush has been implementing during the first three years of his term.

The NEA uses the threat of lethal force to seize money from American taxpayers, to give it to people like Ernesto Pujol, who created masterpieces like these.

Since nobody on the free market wants to buy crap like this, the NEA has to step in and throw cash at starving artists. Otherwise these beauties might never be created.

UPDATE: Owen actually posted Mapplethorpe photos.