There was an interesting part of an episode of The West Wing where some politicians were trying to cut this budget to make room for something else (maybe Nation

There was an interesting part of an episode of The West Wing where some politicians were trying to cut this budget to make room for something else (maybe National Parks?). It was neat to see the arguments on both sides, both for an against this. In general, it seems like it gets some poor uses, but also some culturally valuable ones. Unfortunately I don't remember the references off hand. I do think there's value in a society encouraging the arts. I don't know what that best implementation is (if at all), though.