Thanks for the many intelligent comments.
But many are not directed at the question in OP Title: Why do Trump and others want to defund NEA?
To pretend it’s just about the money makes a mockery of simple arithmetic. How much money have the Secret Service and other law enforcement already spent indulging Trump’s life style? Will we worry about a paltry $150 million when fighting our new-found enemies in the Middle East? What about the huge tax subsidies for Major League Baseball?
No, it can’t be primarily about the paltry money. For some Republicans, making it harder for citizens to get broad humanitarian and cosmopolitan perspective is a worthwhile goal. Others are indulging petty hatreds — stick it to opera lovers, who are mostly left-wing! And for many, I’m sure, it’s just about poking “libtards” in the eye — they do it with contempt just because they can.
Speaking of tax subsidies, it also shows innumeracy to pretend that grants are intrinsically different from forgoing collections. I’m reminded of Obama’s $800 billion stimulus package. His enemies trotted out this phrase over and over and over, emphasising the [SIZE=“4”]$800 Billion[/SIZE] to make sure we knew Obama was wasting a lot of our money. Yet about $300 billion of that package was in the form of tax cuts.
Will those pretending that tax breaks differ from grants now come clean and agree that, from that perspective, harping on Obama’s [SIZE=“4”]$800 Billion[/SIZE], instead of just $500 Billion, was wrong-headed?