Donald Trump’s administration plans to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), according to a report in The New York Times. The so-called ‘hit-list’ was leaked from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
NEA receives USD146m annually while CPB gets USD445m, so removing both programmes would save USD591m in total. The total US budget is USD4 trillion, meaning that the NEA and CPB account for just 0.00015 per cent of national spending.
It is not the first time a President has tried to abolish the NEA; in 1981 Ronald Reagan’s administration wanted to defund the agency over a three-year period, although the scheme never got beyond the planning stages. But according to The New York Times Mick Mulvaney, the newly confirmed director of the OMB, will make its abolition a priority.
Trump has yet to comment on the issue directly, although during his campaign he promised to eliminate the US national debt within three years.
