Posted on 03/24/2018 10:24:22 AM PDT by Drango
For the second straight year, President Trump proposed to eliminate federal funding for arts programs and public media and broadcasting as part of the government's budget plan for the next year. And, for the second straight year, he failed -- and funding will actually increase for arts programs in the proposed spending bill the president signed on Friday (March 23), helping to avoid another possible government shutdown at the 11th hour.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) -- the latter of which funds public television and public radio stations -- will all receive full funding in the final version of the federal spending plan revealed this week, with the NEA and NEH each receiving $152.8 million and the CPB receiving $445 million. For the NEA and NEH, that represents a $3 million boost apiece from the prior year's budget.
The spending bill further allows $20 million for "costs associated with replacing and upgrading the public broadcasting interconnection system and other technologies and services that create infrastructure and efficiencies within the public media system." At a combined total of $465 million, the CPB's level of funding will remain flat year-over-year.
President Donald Trump in the Cabinet Room at the White House Jan. 9, 2018 in Washington, DC. READ MORE Trump's Budget Plan Again Calls for Slashing Arts, Public Media Funding In February, Trump released his proposed budget for the next year, which suggested slashing the CPB's funding from $445 million down to just $15 million, which CPB president and CEO Patricia Harrison said in a statement at the time would "devastate, and then ultimately destroy" the organization's mission. In another statement, PBS president/CEO Paula Kerger stressed that CPB's total funding amounts to "a modest investment of about $1.35 per citizen per year."
Elsewhere in Trump's February proposal, he put forward a plan with the ultimate goal of seeing the NEA and NEH "begin shutting down," slashing funding for the NEA to $29 million and the NEH to $42 million. Last year, he proposed similar cuts to funding for the arts and public media budgets; ultimately, Congress opted to fully fund the CPB and bump funding for the NEA and NEH up $2 million apiece. With this year's budget, those programs have seen their funding increase by $5 million apiece in the two years Trump has been in office.
The spending bill, which will fund the U.S. federal government through September, passed both houses of Congress on Thursday (March 22), leaving it up to the president to sign it and keep the government open. On Friday morning, the president tweeted about possibly vetoing the spending bill over its lack of funding for his border wall and blaming democrats for their failure to include a plan to deal with the 800,000 DACA recipients.
"There are a lot of things I'm unhappy about in this bill, there are a lot of things that we shouldn't have had in this bill, but we were in a sense forced if we want to build our military," Trump said at a White House press conference on Friday afternoon, vowing to "never" sign another bill like it again.
Regardless of the tweets, Trump is still expected to sign the $1.3 trillion Omnibus spending bill, which you can pore through here.
You will here it. BTW Obama did the same thing.
"Redheaded women buck like goats," quoth a character in Ulysses, by James Joyce.
Reckon yer part goat?
I think this means we are back to winning.
Check my screen name, I'm funnin' you!
> The POTUS invoked the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (a law Reagan passed) because of out of control debt and now has discretionary control of all the funds <
I’m really struggling trying to understand this. I took a look at the 1985 law, and I’m hung up on the word “discretionary”.
It seems to me that the POTUS does not have control over all the money in the bill. He only has control over those funds that Congress has specifically labelled as discretionary. So if, say, money for the arts was not labelled discretionary, it must be spent as Congress directs.
Am I missing something here?
I said this and was not referring to you “Anyone who is bellyaching over this right now is wasting their breath because virtually all of the pork and mandates in this bill are now null and void.”
I said “none” but was typing fast should have said “all”.
He can then go on to speculate it's because obama had a (D) behind his name...
...then switch his party affiliation back to democrat!
He can say sorry that is not a priority at this time and this money goes to a place where it is needed critically. He can also choose not to allocate it period.
You are clueless.
Thanks, DV.
> He can say sorry that is not a priority at this time and this money goes to a place where it is needed critically. He can also choose not to allocate it period. <
I would be okay if Trump did that. But how is that constitutional? If Congress says that $500 million must be spent on modern art, then (absent a veto), the president must do exactly that. The Constitution does not allow the president to pick and choose.
Now, if Congress says that $500 million can be spent on modern art, that’s discretionary. And the president can ignore it.
I suppose it all depends on how the bill is written. But I can’t believe that the weasels in Congress would give Trump power over the entire bill.
>>Why do they hate their base so much? Why don’t true conservative pols run them out of DC?
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It’s not that they hate their base so much, it’s that they do not serve them. Their allegiance is to their rich donors, who “own” and direct them according to what benefits the rich donors.
True conservatives are up against an international, firmly entrenched, wholly corrupt, Satanic infrastructure who has been in complete control for many decades.
That’s why their response to DJT has been so visceral and unrelenting. They have never been so challenged. How dare DJT and those disgusting common people challenge our right to rob the people and rule them? Their arrogance is breathtaking, and their resolve is firm. They will go scorched earth to the finish line, if need be.
More than half of over $1 trillion ‘discretionary spending’ IS defense spending. This ‘discretionary’ spending portion is really smoke and mirrors, as federal courts do or would mandate all kinds of spending that meet the definition of ‘discretionary’.
Here is the White House’ own breakdown of proposed ‘discretionary’ spending, starting at page 50:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2018_blueprint.pdf
schumer’s tunnel money can help build the wall?
“I suppose it all depends on how the bill is written. But I can’t believe that the weasels in Congress would give Trump power over the entire bill.”
It depends on the financial condition of the country and he outflanked the weasels. It is called the art of war.
Literally, yes.
I went and read the law Trump quotes and I can’t figure out how you get that he now has the right, under law, to spend the $1.3 trillion as he chooses. Section 251(b) doesn’t seem to say what you claim it does. That section deals with funds for the War on Terror.
That is where it all is going.
Then why is trump saying he will never sign another bill like this if this really is a best case for him? Why are conservative pundits trying to pin this on Ryan and McConnell if it’s so good for the President?
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