Trump renews call to pull arts, PBS funding

Of course he does.

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/434586-trump-renews-call-to-pull-arts-pbs-funding


Trump renews call to pull arts, PBS funding
By Niv Elis - 03/18/19 03:02 PM EDT


President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal has called for eliminating popular programs such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund stations such as PBS and NPR, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Trump had proposed eliminating the programs in his last two budgets as well, suggestions that Congress ignored.

The 2020 request, which was released in its entirety on Monday, called for scrapping $435 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and $126 billion from the National Endowment for the Arts, leaving both with a few million dollars to manage an orderly shutdown.

The overall budget will spend $4.7 trillion on discretionary and mandatory programs.

Regarding public broadcasting, the administration argued that it only provides a fraction of the funds for popular stations such as PBS and NPR.

Proponents of publicly funded journalism say that the funding largely benefits stations in rural areas that would struggle to stay afloat on just ad revenues, and that public funding promotes high quality journalism.

Regarding the arts, the budget justification said they did not fall in the purview of the federal government.

“The Administration does not consider NEA activities to be core Federal responsibilities,” the proposal said.