For all the people I know in social media world that dictate what appears to be almost all aspects of their lives on "feels" without even bothering to look into what it is they are angry about, they were outraged, i mean outraged! That the current administration wanted to cut the $17 million government grant that is given to the Special Olympics.
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Of course this was mostly because it gave them an opportunity to point the finger at Trump for something and of course the media just loves to do that. This is nothing new.
Also, because of what the Special Olympics is, it is very easy to create the false equivalency that someone who is opposed to government funding of this of being heartless and uncaring about the less fortunate on this planet... they, and many other people like the aforementioned "feels" people did, predictably, precisely that.
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The media wolves came out of the woodwork to call Betsy DeVos a "monster" and "morally bankrupt" for her proposition to defund the Special Olympics but as expected, the truly morally bankrupt people are in the media, who depending on how they want to spin this, left out certain key elements of the equation that would allow people to make a more informed opinion on the matter such as.
- Betsy actually donates a large portion of her salary (I think it is 25%, whatever, a lot) to the Special Olympics every year
- The Special Olympics isn't entirely altruistic when you look at the fact that the top executives receive big bonuses and make over $250,000 / year (highest is nearly a half-million a year) receive a large per diem, and have all travel expenses reimbursed (PRO TIP: "travel expenses" can mean almost anything, and the people involved normally travel in a far more luxurious fashion than they would do if spending their own money.)
- The Special Olympics have lobbyists working in Washington and to me, this is the only reason I need to want them defunded. If you have enough resources to bribe congresspeople, you don't need government grants.
- They have assets of $295 million on the books
- This is the biggest one they leave out: The Special Olympics have an operating surplus of around $30 million a year (i don't know if you are a mathematician like me, but 30 is bigger than 17), mostly from private tax-deductible donations (including one from DeVos). They are able to cover their expenses without the US Federal grant.
- The Special Olympics organization is classified as a charitable organization and therefore pays no tax on the money they make
Here is the way I look at this, and every other organization in the USA, if not the world. If you can stand on your own legs, you should. The United States is 20 trillion dollars in debt and if everyone is going to whine any time anything gets cut, this is never going to change. The system, the way it is now, doesn't work and if people are going to cry that the sky is falling every time someone tries to make cuts, the hole will only get dug deeper.
I honestly believe that the Special Olympics doesn't really need the government grant in order to exist. If it was going to collapse without this money, I would say that they need to scale it back a bit just like any other project. I would love to have a Lamborghini but I can only afford a Toyota. I will never agree with taking money via taxes and then redistributing it for various projects, especially if those projects are capable of existing without the handout.
