A Bad Budget

This was a busy week in the news world. Between the threat of nuclear war, the special election in Georgia, the fall of Alex Jones, and the end of Bill O�Reilly on Fox News, I had lots of subject material to work with. It seems that this vein of plentiful news stories has continued into this week, and I am glad. It�s kind of ironic seeing how a month ago my main struggle in writing these articles every week was finding a story that did not deal with our President. Now my struggle is deciding which story I want to write about the most. This phenomenon is like going from eating food from a vending machine that only sells potato chips to getting access to an all-you-can-eat buffet. It�s an upgrade.

            However, I�m not going to talk about North Korea or Alex Jones tonight. I�m going to sort of break my pledge and talk indirectly about Donald Trump. And before I go on, I know that you are thinking that I�m breaking my own rule to not discuss our President. But in this segment, I will be discussing his policies, not him. So, technically, I�m not talking about Donald Trump.

            The policy in question is his controversial budget proposal, which includes cuts to a number of social programs and the arts in order to increase military spending. In the words of our President, this budget, �Puts America first.� I was not sure how I felt about it at first. On one hand, cutting programs like Meals on Wheels seems like a horrible thing to do. But it doesn�t seem that bad when you take into account that only 3% of funds for Meals on Wheels comes from the federal government. It does seem bad when organizations like the EPA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development lose partial funding, and when the CPB is completely cut from the federal budget. But it doesn�t seem as bad when these cuts translate into increases in defense spending and border security, which seems logical.

            In order to understand how this budget would affect the arts community, which would be hurt by this budget as it includes cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts, I decided to ask an artist about its potential impact. I got the opportunity to question Marcus Amaker, the Poet Laureate of Charleston, about his opinion on the budget. When I asked him about the monetary significance of these cuts to the arts community in Charleston, he said, �I believe it is a symbolic blow to the arts community. The previous administration was very supportive of the arts.�

            That it was. The Obama Administration increased funding for the arts on many levels and supported the creation of an �Artists Corps� to train young artists to work and spread their influence in low-income communities. These drastic changes concerning the attitude of the Presidency towards the arts is a symbolic blow in that it targets the arts and made it one of the first types of federally-funded organizations to be cut in exchange for increases to military spending.

            These next four years will be rough for the arts community. When I asked him about the duty of an artist during these divided times, Mr. Amaker stated, �Artists around the country should understand the importance of their voice. And not fear being uncomfortable.�

            That makes sense. In order for this President to understand the importance of the arts community to American society, artists need to make some noise and make this administration aware of their presence. It�s necessary that artists call on their community to support them. Mr. Amaker seemed confident that the arts would not diminish in the coming years saying, �Oftentimes, it takes something negative to happen for positivity to grow.�

            Through research and conversation I decided that this is not a good budget. It hurts the unique culture of our country because it displays disdain for the arts community. It hurts programs that keep our environment clean and provide opportunities to the poor. It hurts education and science. But most of all it�s unnecessary. There is no need to increase the military budget by 52 billion dollars when the United States military is already the most powerful in the world. This budget cuts organizations that create in order to fund organizations that destroy. There is no �winning� that can come from this proposal. It is truly a �dumb deal.�