Since taking over the House of Representatives, Republicans have been committed to cutting spending in a variety of areas. Their latest target - arts and culture.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the Republican Study Committee is calling for the elimination of three of the most visible publicly-funded arts and broadcasting foundations. The leaders have put the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in their proverbial cross-hairs this legislative session.

The government spends $167.5 million on the two endowment programs and $445 million on the CPB, spending that many GOP lawmakers say is unnecessary.

One of the backers of the bill is South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint. In a recent OpEd for the Washington Examiner co-authored by DeMint, the senator said that there was a lot of waste that could be rectified.

"Known as the Spending Reduction Act, this bill makes major strides toward resolving the debt crisis by cutting $2.5 trillion of spending between now and 2021," he wrote. "Here's how it works: In the short term, the Spending Reduction Act makes $125 billion of immediate rescissions, which target money already approved by Congress, by cutting current spending back to 2008 levels and repealing the remaining funds from Obama's failed 'stimulus' package."