WH Proposed Budget Would Cut All Federal Funding For MEDIA, ARTS, LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS

[appalachiablue]

'Why Educate the Public When You Can Give Billionaires Tax Cuts': Trump Budget Would Slash All Federal Funding for Media, Arts, Libraries, Museums. "We should be spending more, not less," argued one critic. By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, March 19, 2019.

Despite new research showing that the arts contribute over $760 billion to the American economy each year—in addition to their many non-economic societal benefits—President Donald Trump's budget proposal calls for eliminating all federal funding for the arts, museums, humanities, public television and radios, and libraries.

"The robust data... show through hard evidence how and where arts and culture contribute value to the economies of communities throughout the nation." —Jane Chu, National Endowment for the Arts

"For the third time in as many years, the White House has proposed a federal budget that would shutter the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—which supports PBS and NPR—and the Institute of Museum and Library Services," the Washington Post reported on Monday. "Like last year, the plan provides small appropriations for each agency to facilitate its orderly demise."

Framed by the Trump White House as "wasteful or unnecessary spending," the budget's proposed cuts to the arts, libraries, and humanities programs would total $897 million. "Since its creation in 1965, NEH has established a significant record of achievement through its grantmaking programs," Peede said. "Over these five decades, NEH has awarded more than $5.7 billion for humanities projects through more than 65,000 grants. That public investment has led to the creation of books, films, and museum exhibits, and to ensuring the preservation of significant cultural resources around the country."

"Public investment has led to the creation of books, films, and museum exhibits, and to ensuring the preservation of significant cultural resources around the country." —Jon Parrish Peede, National Endowment for the Humanities

While Trump's budget has been deemed "dead on arrival" by Democrats—who control the House of Representatives—cuts to the arts and humanities are another example of the president's warped priorities. As Common Dreams reported, Trump's budget blueprint would also cut trillions of dollars from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security while hiking the Pentagon's 2020 budget to $750 billion...
More, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/19/why-educate-public-when-you-can-give-billionaires-tax-cuts-trump-budget-would-slash









A new study by the Bureau of Economic Analysis & the (NEA)National Endowment for the Arts found that arts contribute 4.2 % of the US annual gross domestic product (GDP)- more than agriculture, warehousing, or transportation.

[Gothmog]

1. Who is surprised by this?

This should surprise no one

[handmade34]

2. this is

what happens when we have nubbins in charge of the government... I cry for what we are at risk of losing if we don't get serious and fight

[appalachiablue]

4. We've been very fortunate with support for the arts esp. thanks

to 20th c. Democratic administrations. Who doesn't realize how critical education in the arts and humanities is to civilization and advanced society. Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-RI) helped establish the NEA and NEH and the college financial aid Pell Grant program named for him in 1980. I gave a presentation to a panel Pell was on and also worked on NEH and IMS sponsored projects and exhibits. This 2020 proposal to slash federal funds and eliminate services is seriously unwise.

Claiborne de Borda Pell (November 22, 1918 – January 1, 2009) was an American politician and writer who served as a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island for six terms from 1961 to 1997. He was the sponsor of the 1972 bill that reformed the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant, which provides financial aid funding to American college students; the grant was later given Pell's name in honor of his work in education legislation. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the U.S. Senate longer than anyone else from Rhode Island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claiborne_Pell

[handmade34]

6. Adams' quote is priceless!

[SWBTATTReg]

3. The WH has listed incorrectly wasteful spending in that it failed to truly list what is wasteful...

I consider the tax breaks enjoyed by the 1%ers passed in 2017 (tax cut and jobs bill) one of the most wasteful spending bills ever to be written. This is costing all of us big time and literally 100s of billions of dollars.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Framed by the Trump White House as "wasteful or unnecessary spending," the budget's proposed cuts to the arts, libraries, and humanities programs would total $897 million.

[appalachiablue]

5. Absolutely

[trev]

7. I remember in the 1980s

that the cities in my area were closing museums and libraries. I was devastated at the time.

It was the dawning of the Republican Era, when Reagan was cutting funding for the arts.

https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/03/arts/reagan-expected-to-cut-spending-for-the-arts.html

[appalachiablue]

8. So correct Trev and what an era that was; I can't forget being

in DC when Reagan was elected- shock of my life- and then inaugurated. Just finishing school with training in culture and museums when the GOP regime began as you note. Yes, many smaller regional museums and libraries were negatively impacted from funding cuts...

We must continue to support and preserve our arts and humanities and cultural institutions, through program funding and education and more, somehow. One of the smaller community museums I worked at with an excellent historical collection and programs relied on the federally funded IMS, Institute for Museum Services mentioned in the article, for yearly operations.

Look what happened to Germany (and the world), an advanced western European nation during the 1920s, 30s and 40s under the regressive, fascist and authoritarian Nazi regime. Expelling 'decadent modern art' and 'non-German' academics, professionals and more, promoting pseudo- science beliefs of Aryan supremacy, eugenics policy and mass murder, crushing free speech, democracy and liberal institutions of higher education.
__________________________

> NYT, "Reagan Expected To Cut Spending For The Arts," Feb. 3, 1982.
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/03/arts/reagan-expected-to-cut-spending-for-the-arts.html

President Reagan's budget message next week is expected to call for substantial cuts in Federal spending for the arts and humanities, according to Congressional aides who have discussed the matter with Administration officials.

Spending by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is at $143 million in the 1982 fiscal year, would drop to $100 million in the year beginning Oct. 1 under the Reagan proposal. Similarly, proposed spending for the National Endowment for the Humanities would decline from $136 million to $96 million next year.

These endowments are the bellwether vehicles for Federal spending for the arts and humanities and, as such, have great support among members of Congress, so it is not likely that Mr. Reagan will be able to get all the cuts he is seeking, according to Congressional aides.

Representative Frederick W. Richmond, Democrat of Brooklyn, who is chairman of the Congressional Arts Caucus, said today that he would oppose the cuts.

''Arts are crucial to the well-being of America,'' Mr. Richmond said. Recision of Museum Funds: In addition to the cuts in the forthcoming budget, Mr. Reagan is expected to ask for the cancellation of already approved funds - a process called recision, requiring assent by both the Senate and the House of Representatives - for the Institute of Museum Services. At stake is $11.5 million in institute funds...(more at link above).

[trev]

9. That must have been especially hard on you. :(

One of my fondest school memories took place in the late 1970s. I was attending Cal Poly Pomona in California, and had dropped a friend off at his dorm room on nearby Pomona College. It was an early autumn evening, cool with a clear blue sky, and the setting sun cast long shadows across the grass. I stopped in the library to have a peek at it. I walked slowly through each floor, the wooden floorboards creaking under my feet in the stillness. I remember being awed by the worn books on the shelves, the sense of protected knowledge. A deep peace, mingled with equal pleasure, filled me. To this day, I can still see the rooms and smell the air in my mind.

I still spend a lot of time in libraries and art galleries.

Republicans are uncultured. Their view of art is that it makes for a good investment, hoping to make money off it.

[appalachiablue]

10. That 12 year period went by fast and being young and busy

I didn't realize how deep we were in a 'counterrevolutionary' era until much later. I started working in the health and disability field by accident and found it rewarding. Finally went back to work at the National Archives and a community Civil War era Union historic site and museum.

~ Your recollection of the CA college library makes me think how I need to get back to SoCal to visit F & F and sites including the Huntington. Culture rocks ~!






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