The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts (the Kennedy Center), located on the east bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., opened in 1971 but was actually authorized by the National Cultural Center Act of 1958. Its original name, the National Cultural Center, was changed in 1964, two months after President Kennedy’s assassination.

The Kennedy Center is dedicated to the performing arts and features operas, concerts, plays, musicals, ballets, movies, and dances. It is the home of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington National Opera. It also hosts dinners, galas, conferences, receptions, and special events.

The Kennedy Center is a public-private partnership. It receives an annual appropriation for capital repairs, operations, and maintenance. Back in 2021, the Center disclosed that it had received “$269.4 million in federal funding since 2016” and paid its president, Deborah Rutter, “pay and benefits amounting to $5.1 million.”

Now, since the Constitution nowhere authorizes the federal government to have a cultural center or support the arts, the Kennedy Center should be a strictly private venture. Republicans who claim to be fiscal conservatives, follow the Constitution, and believe in limited government should be saying that the Kennedy Center should be self-supporting or sold to the highest bidder.

After Donald Trump was elected president, he criticized the Kennedy Center for its drag and LGBTQ programming. He fired members of the board of trustees, including the president, Deborah Rutter, because they “do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” and named his own board members, who elected Trump as the new chairman.

Trump then backed a $257 million federal funding package for the Kennedy Center, which is more than six times its usual annual support. The funding is part of Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” that is supported by the vast majority of Republicans in Congress.

Republicans spent much of the Biden years castigating the president and congressional Democrats for their out-of-control spending. They promised in their 2024 party platform that they would “immediately stabilize the Economy by slashing wasteful Government spending.” So, how is that compatible with appropriating $257 million for the Kennedy Center?

This shows hard-working, tax-paying, middle-class Americans the true nature of Republicans.

Republicans are more interested in controlling government agencies and programs than in eliminating them. They have no problem with government subsidies and spending as long as their projects receive the funding.

This is why Trump and the Republicans’ “one big beautiful bill” includes a new savings account for children that comes with a $1,000 deposit from the federal government—courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

It is only when some government agency or program does something that Republicans disagree with that they ever talk about cutting its budget or eliminating it. The only limited government wanted by Republicans is a government limited to control by Republicans.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/06/laurence-m-vance/republicans-reveal-their-true-nature