Your knee-jerk instinct is to say no whenever someone suggests more power or more money for government.
It’s not that we think there are no problems. But we realize that government is very likely to make things worse. What’s really galling is that government failure is then used as an argument for more government!
I’m thinking about these libertarian concepts because of the controversy about Donald Trump and the Kennedy Center. Most people have focused on whether Trump had the authority to add his name to the building.
But I view that as a silly distraction. I’m more concerned about the fact that taxpayers have been coughing up $40-$50 million per year to subsidize artistic performances for upper-income people in Washington.
The Washington Post‘s editorial has a half-right perspective. Here are some excerpts.
Back in February 2025, Donald Trump must have thought the Kennedy Center would be an easy win. Given that he could appoint and dismiss members of the board, there was a legal path to his unprecedented takeover of the traditionally nonpartisan arts center. …But events this week show the extent to which Trump miscalculated. The Washington Post reported on the disastrous financial impact of the Trump takeover on the Kennedy Center’s premier tenant, the National Symphony Orchestra, which suffered a devastating audience boycott. An institution-wide boycott, and the refusal of artists to perform at the center, have apparently led to another sad, unnecessary development: the decision Thursday to close the arts venue for a two-year renovation.
Why is the Post editorial only half-right?
That’s because I don’t want Kennedy Center closed for two years. I want it closed down forever.
Or, to be more accurate, I don’t care whether the Kennedy Center is open or closed. I just don’t want there to be any taxpayer subsidies.
Let the high-income denizens of the D.C. metropolitan area pay for their own entertainment.
When I discuss this topic with my left-wing friends, they claim the subsidies for the Kennedy Center are trivial, not even $1-per-year for every American taxpayer.
