âI have much faith in the wisdom and patriotism of members of Congress who will recognize that this is bad for the United States, that cutting these programs undermines the quality of American citizenship, education, and civic culture," Grossman told TPM.
Well, thatâs one of us.
Trumpâs budget Guts America First
Iâm guessing that Trumpâs âbusinessesâ budgets were/are the same as this âPresidentialâ âbudgetâ blueprint. A lot of claims with no details of how it will get done. Explains why pretty much all his âbusinessesâ go down the hole, aside from the moron at the top.
Letâs see with the GOP health care plan we have nearly $1 trillion in tax cuts, 90% of which goes to the top 1%. NEH/NEA budget is $300 million, and it has to go because we canât afford it? If Iâve got my math right, we could buy 3000 NEHs and NEAs if we just donât cut those taxes.
Amoral, insensitive and cruel.
No humans beings were taken into account in the construction of this budget.
This Mick is a dick, and nothing more than a fucking bean counter.
My conserative supervisor, whose wife is a teacher was actually talking about how disappointing it was that the county was considering having to cut the arts in the public schools his kids attend.
âWhat we have here is an attack upon global citizenship and national civic culture,"
There you go again, we in the hinterlands donât want to be part of global citizenship, otherwise we would be pro-immigration. We donât have a national civic culture, we are so different from you we need states to have individual health plans because even our diseases are different from yours.
/s
If private philanthropists could borrow the currency they created at 1% interest, theyâd be a wonderful substitute for the federal government. Because they canât, charity and philanthropy are zero sum activities. Every dollar Bill Gates spends on school technology is a dollar that came from somebodyâs Office 365 subscription or wherever.
I would love for private philanthropists and charities to step up and prove how little we should delegate to our government. But even if unicorns farted rainbows, and left in their wake an army of philanthropists dedicated to proving exactly that, theyâd be guaranteed to fall short.
Back in the real world conservatives in my Facebook feed were first in line to bitch when the American Heart Association held its Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser at school. Well guess what people? In world where the government canât do anything, weâre going to need fundraisers to do everything. Your kids should learn how early because in Trump world, soliciting donations is going to be an important skill!
Remember Mary Poppins? The sweet, wholesome actress dropped the spoonful of sugar and gave a full-throated, nuanced defense of funding for the arts and humanities.
Hereâs what the actress Julie Andrews had to say:
Julie Andrews: Trumpâs proposed budget cuts to the arts âmind-bogglingâ
Actress Julie Andrews on Thursday slammed President Trumpâs first federal budget blueprint for targeting the arts for drastic budget cuts.
âDecades worth of research attests to the fact that the arts are among the most profoundly important and valuable ways to improve learning and promote success, from early childhood through adulthood,â she wrote in a CNN op-ed with her daughter, fellow actress Emma Walton Hamilton.
âAnd yet, the arts are the first to go when the budget ax falls,â Andrews added. "Now, with the shifting priorities of our new presidential administration, artists and art organizations are at serious risk of losing the support they need to their invaluable work.â
âThis is mind-boggling to us, considering how much the arts benefit our lives and world. They foster collaboration and creativity, essential skills for navigating in the workplace and surviving in a challenging world.â
Andrews added the arts provide benefits beyond cultural enrichment, entertainment and creative expression.
âTheyâre also good for business: They spur urban renewal, promote tourism and generate hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity annually,â the celebrated actress said.
âWe therefore respectfully request that every member of our society â individuals, educators, administrators, business leaders â do everything possible to preserve and advance this most precious and essential resource, and demand that our elected representatives do the same.â
Trump earlier Thursday released a federal budget blueprint calling for a dramatic reduction of the government.
The presidentâs outline reportedly calls for eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in their entirety.
The NEA secured $148 million from the federal government in 2016, roughly the same amount requested by the NEH.
Presidential budget requests are only a guidance for Congress, and lawmakers frequently use their control over the power of the purse to pass their own versions instead.
Trumpâs budget blueprint is expected to undergo major changes due to bipartisan concerns over its scope and drastic cuts to many agencies and programs."
Exactly. Weâve got to prepare them. Begging will be an important skill in the Trump-Putin-GOP service sector economy.
Why should the Republicans care about the humanities? They have no humanity.
Meanwhile the drums of war are beating louder this morning.
Members of congress with common sense will put an end to this proposed madness. Anyone who opposes this should begin by pointing out that this is not something that Trump advocated during the campaign and asked the voters to approve of. He deserves every bit of opposition on this type of budget cut.
Fuck you, Susan Sarandon.
Itâs time for an âEverybody paint Trump day.â
All that separates America from ISIS is culture. Trump hates our culture as much as they do.
With a saguaro cactus.
I sure hope so, but arts funding is a really, really easy thing to stereotype and use as a distraction. I donât bash regular folks over everything but interest in and admiration for learning in general and the arts in particular isnât super high among them. I went house-hunting once with a single-mom girlfriend, and most of the modest houses we looked at had zero reading material anywhere except a few Harry Potter books in the kidsâ rooms. A huge TV could invariably be found in the living room, though. You know whoâs big on education though, both the moms and the dads? Mexican immigrants. One of lifeâs little ironies.
If there is one guaranteed vehicle for gut-driven cultural wannabees like Trump and Bannon to get some sort of perceived revenge on everyone they ever envied for their legitimate class and character, it would be eliminating the NEA and the NEH.
