DOGE trying to destroy The Institute of Museum and Library Services

[Anonymous]

Again. Trump needs to make his case to Congress.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IMLS supports a lot of the small libraries and museums around the country. For example, things like second tier founding fathers' houses and local historical societies. It's a favorite source of pork for the House, especially for exurban members.

It's going to be hard for a lot of those places to survive. They don't appeal to the big donors. Between the reduced tax value of charitable contributions and the economic squeeze on the middle class it wil be difficult to fully meet operational expenses.

I can't get worked up about it because compared to everything else it's a small disappointment. We will be losing a lot of history, especially in exurban and rural areas, though.

We shouldn’t be sad to lose pork projects. If Congress wants to bribe constituents, they should do it with their own (suspiciously large piles of) money, not with taxpayer funds.

I know, right? Why do we have a federal government or pay taxes when it should all be local?

Did you ever take an economics class? It's pretty clear that Musk and his DOGE kids never did. Or a substantial number of members of Congress.

Yes, for local things funded locally, it WOULD be better if there weren’t small federal agency overlays making small grants to buy the federal government extra control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every local thing needs a fed agency effing with it.

The grants are lifelines to local libraries.

Not really. The dollar amounts are very small. A lot if it is just free books pushing particular ideologies popular in DC or distributing pork to help Congressional incumbents get re-elected.

Dude, you have no idea of what you speak. The application process does not run through the congressional offices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again. Trump needs to make his case to Congress.

Why?

Congress created this agency by statute and funded it from appropriations. It is unconstitutional for Trump and DOGE to do this - but they don't care.

Congress is leaving it to private plaintiffs and the courts to stop Trump and his unlawful actions, a process that has been happening at lightning speed but is still a slow and expensive process, and further enrages the MAGA base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again. Trump needs to make his case to Congress.

Why?

Congress created this agency by statute and funded it from appropriations. It is unconstitutional for Trump and DOGE to do this - but they don't care.

Congress is leaving it to private plaintiffs and the courts to stop Trump and his unlawful actions, a process that has been happening at lightning speed but is still a slow and expensive process, and further enrages the MAGA base.

If Congress isn’t going to do its job, it needs to call a constitutional convention and delete article 1 and go home. That will undoubtedly give us some budget savings and we can save ourselves the trouble and cost of having elections more than once every four years. Possibly they could amend article 2 while they’re at it and make elections every six years. Or never.

But until such time as the constitution is amended, everyone needs to abide by it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every local thing needs a fed agency effing with it.

The grants are lifelines to local libraries.

Not really. The dollar amounts are very small. A lot if it is just free books pushing particular ideologies popular in DC or distributing pork to help Congressional incumbents get re-elected.

The museums and libraries this impacts have very small budgets. As far as I know there were no free books or particular ideologies involved. Money went to cover part of an already small salary for their single employee. From what I remember we aren't talking about general lending libraries but small scale research libraries on relatively boring and obscure topics like Appalachian music or German settlement in Colonial America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every local thing needs a fed agency effing with it.

The grants are lifelines to local libraries.

Not really. The dollar amounts are very small. A lot if it is just free books pushing particular ideologies popular in DC or distributing pork to help Congressional incumbents get re-elected.

You're full of shit.

Oohh looky here:

In 2018, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that updated the agency’s Grants to States program. This bill, signed by President Donald Trump in his first term, established a minimum amount of state funding for libraries, usually determined by state population.

Today, the agency funds 125,000 public, school, academic, and special libraries across the country.

Sounds like 2018 may have been an autopen situation, huh? Probably his dementia is so bad now that he can't remember what he did, huh? Sleepy Don.

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/trump-admin-cuts-library-funding-what-it-means-for-students/2025/03

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IMLS supports a lot of the small libraries and museums around the country. For example, things like second tier founding fathers' houses and local historical societies. It's a favorite source of pork for the House, especially for exurban members.

Hear that? This is literally a pork fund that mostly helps exurban (Republican) Congresspeople! Now can we please let them kill it without weeping because we saw the word “library”? We all wish we could have been around for the legendary fights over National Endowment for the Arts funding, but this is not that.

[Anonymous]

Where is the commensurate cut in taxes then?

We got the tax cut over the last few decades. The government kept spending more than it took in during that period. Cuts made today represent reductions in the annual budget deficit.

That said, Congress should be making these decisions, not a president who thinks that he is a dictator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Again. Trump needs to make his case to Congress.

Why?

Congress created this agency by statute and funded it from appropriations. It is unconstitutional for Trump and DOGE to do this - but they don't care.

Congress is leaving it to private plaintiffs and the courts to stop Trump and his unlawful actions, a process that has been happening at lightning speed but is still a slow and expensive process, and further enrages the MAGA base.

If Congress isn’t going to do its job, it needs to call a constitutional convention and delete article 1 and go home. That will undoubtedly give us some budget savings and we can save ourselves the trouble and cost of having elections more than once every four years. Possibly they could amend article 2 while they’re at it and make elections every six years. Or never.

But until such time as the constitution is amended, everyone needs to abide by it.

I agree they need to do their job. Congress can't keep shirking its responsibilities every year because so many members prefer to just "govern" through social media so their sycophants turn out in the next eleciotn. Otherwise let's just run the entire government through a recurring CR. Can we make that the law? Congress can adjust funding when they feel like getting up in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every local thing needs a fed agency effing with it.

The grants are lifelines to local libraries.

Not really. The dollar amounts are very small. A lot if it is just free books pushing particular ideologies popular in DC or distributing pork to help Congressional incumbents get re-elected.

You're full of shit.

Oohh looky here:

In 2018, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that updated the agency’s Grants to States program. This bill, signed by President Donald Trump in his first term, established a minimum amount of state funding for libraries, usually determined by state population.

Today, the agency funds 125,000 public, school, academic, and special libraries across the country.

Sounds like 2018 may have been an autopen situation, huh? Probably his dementia is so bad now that he can't remember what he did, huh? Sleepy Don.

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/trump-admin-cuts-library-funding-what-it-means-for-students/2025/03

Actually, you’re full of it because you think you are moral just for being on the blue team, and you’re easily influenced by propaganda. It’s just simple math. If this agency is supporting 125,000 special libraries, they are getting an average of about 2300 bucks each. Like I said, the dollar amounts are small. Too small to even justify the red tape, reporting, fed strings attached, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not every local thing needs a fed agency effing with it.

The grants are lifelines to local libraries.

Not really. The dollar amounts are very small. A lot if it is just free books pushing particular ideologies popular in DC or distributing pork to help Congressional incumbents get re-elected.

You're full of shit.

Oohh looky here:

In 2018, Congress passed a bipartisan bill that updated the agency’s Grants to States program. This bill, signed by President Donald Trump in his first term, established a minimum amount of state funding for libraries, usually determined by state population.

Today, the agency funds 125,000 public, school, academic, and special libraries across the country.

Sounds like 2018 may have been an autopen situation, huh? Probably his dementia is so bad now that he can't remember what he did, huh? Sleepy Don.

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/trump-admin-cuts-library-funding-what-it-means-for-students/2025/03

Actually, you’re full of it because you think you are moral just for being on the blue team, and you’re easily influenced by propaganda. It’s just simple math. If this agency is supporting 125,000 special libraries, they are getting an average of about 2300 bucks each. Like I said, the dollar amounts are small. Too small to even justify the red tape, reporting, fed strings attached, etc etc.

They do other stuff too and usually require matching state funding. $46,000 is around the salary of an executive director at a small library or museum.

It may or may not be a good use of federal funds but those small amounts are indeed vital to the places that get them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is what authoritarians do...destroy institutions of knowledge and learning so the voice of authority lies in the leader.

This....next up destroying all media outlets that don't bow to MAGA gods-project 2025

[Anonymous]

Dems never complained about “process” when Congress abdicated budget passing and spending discretion to the Executive and spending was growing. The voters know that Dem objection is to audits and spending cuts, not to process. Cuts with good process were an option for the Biden admin, but they didn’t take it. Dems don’t want cuts. Gov workers and beneficiaries also VOTE Dem. Every dollar spent grows the Dem power base. But Reps now take the side of taxpayers, of private sector workers. They cut. Using the same process that was used for the spending increases. We can get back to Congress having the power of yje purse after we undo the last 10 years of non-Congressionally directed spending growth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dems never complained about “process” when Congress abdicated budget passing and spending discretion to the Executive and spending was growing. The voters know that Dem objection is to audits and spending cuts, not to process. Cuts with good process were an option for the Biden admin, but they didn’t take it. Dems don’t want cuts. Gov workers and beneficiaries also VOTE Dem. Every dollar spent grows the Dem power base. But Reps now take the side of taxpayers, of private sector workers. They cut. Using the same process that was used for the spending increases. We can get back to Congress having the power of yje purse after we undo the last 10 years of non-Congressionally directed spending growth

No.
Next.