September 11, 2009 11:38AM 

# Ohhhhhh! That ‘NEA’ 

By [Andrew J. Coulson](https://www.cato.org/people/andrew-coulson) 

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Imagine my confusion when I saw this article summary in my inbox this morning: “[Official Leaves NEA After Suggestions That He Used Agency To Further Obama Agenda](http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0909/NEA_in_politics_flap.html).”

Uhhh, I thought to myself, the NEA has given 93% of its $30 million in federal political contributions since 1990 [to Democrats](http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000064), so wouldn’t somebody there get fired for NOT furthering the president’s agenda?

It turns out, there’s [some other NEA that does something else](http://www.theonion.com/content/news/national_endowment_for_the_arts). Phew! Apocalypse not on horzion after all.

##### Related Tags 

[Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) 

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