The incoming administration is reportedly preparing to make dramatic cuts to federal spending. They plan on cutting $10.5 trillion in government spending over the next decade. A write-up in The Hill provides some detail on where these cuts may be happening.
Slashing To Save Nothing
Among the big cuts to several government departments, the report details cuts to much smaller cultural programs that receive federal funding. Alexander Bolton reports:
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting would be privatized, while the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated entirely.”
Both the NEA and NEH each received a paltry 0.003 percent of the reported $3.9 trillion spent by the government in 2016. The CPB received the most of the three, but still only 0.01 percent of the total money spent. If President-elect Donald Trump is going to reduce spending by $1.05 trillion annually ($10.5 total in ten years) cutting the funding for these programs only amounts to 0.074 percent of the total. That’s essentially nothing.
Preserving Our Culture and History
Programs like the NEA, NEH, and the CPB are necessary for promoting and sustaining our nation’s culture, arts, and history. The NEA website describes its mission:
“The NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America.”
The NEH exists to “facilitate research,” as well as “preserve and provide” opportunities for cultural and historical education. Their grants go to museums, libraries, universities, public television, radio stations, and individual scholars.
Additionally, the CPB promotes education and learning through public radio and television. Clearly all three of these programs are incredibly important to the learning and cultural exposure of millions of Americans. Despite all of this, Trump and his team want to cut these programs in order to bring them less than one percent closer to their goal.
Military Vs. Education
It’s been clear from day one of the Trump campaign that American culture and history hold no importance to him. Just one day away from his inauguration, it seems that Trump will be expanding military spending while destroying America’s cultural programs. Unfortunately, this unnecessary show of military power is clearly a much bigger priority to him than the education of U.S. citizens. Sad!
Luckily, given that these cuts would have to occur to the government’s discretionary spending, it actually may not be possible. Cutting $1.05 trillion per year would eliminating almost all of the government’s discretionary spending. New Yorker economics writer James Surowiecki details this below:
2. $10.5 trillion over 10 years is roughly a trillion dollars a year. But all federal discretionary spending is $1.1 trillion.
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) January 19, 2017
Featured image credit: via Twitter
