Speaking of needed resistance:
The New York Times reports that the White House budget office is at work on cuts in domestic spending and a draft targets nine relatively small but popular programs with many beneficiaries and fans in Arkansas.
They include old conservative bugaboos such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Legal Services Corporation, AmeriCorps and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities. All these provide significant financial benefits in Arkansas, payments that translate to human benefits.
It’s not a final document. It could change. Larger departments will undoubtedly be on the list eventually too.
Debate will follow.
Backers of the National Endowment for the Arts are likely to put up a particularly vigorous fight.
“The public wants to see agencies like the N.E.A. continue,” said Robert L. Lynch, head of Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization. “There is always a debate, but there has been agreement among Republicans and Democrats that funding for the arts is a good thing, and it has been kept in place.”
Other agencies on the budget office’s list of cuts include the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Corporation for National and Community Service, which finances programs run by AmeriCorps and SeniorCorps. The memo also proposed reducing funding for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a nonprofit organization focused on urban development.
Given Trump’s support among older Americans, somebody perhaps should get the word out that funding for those Lawrence Welk re-runs could be imperiled.