Republicans hold a majority in the Senate.  That means that any budget bill senators are voting on was developed/amended in the Republican controlled Senate Appropriations Committee.  The bill mentioned regarding the restoration of the arts grants was even a Senate bill authored by Senate Republicans.

The arguments that legislative Republicans can't vote for spending cuts because Democrats will attack them for it is no different than the argument that congressional Republicans have to fight for pork projects for their districts or Democrats will call them ineffective.  It's the very reason that Republican majorities don't result in smaller government.

On the other hand, Democrats have shown that they are willing to vote for taxes to pay for government programs and services despite the threat of Republicans using the tax votes against them and the threat of recall elections.  While you may disagree with Democrats about the role of government, Democrats at least are willing to assume political risk rather than take the hypocritical position of opposing both tax cuts and spending cuts.

And to Leon Drolet's credit, he consistently voted against government spending but managed to win re-election.