Many commentators have pointed out that since government funding began, nothing comparable to those achievements has come from the American arts. Instead, we've gotten nihilistic performance art in which people smear themselves with chocolate or carve pieces of flesh from the backs of fellow performers. In broadcasting, so-called public radio and television function essentially as mouthpieces and apologists for Leviathan. The advocates of government finance also make a welfare defense of the agencies. Poor people and residents of small towns don't have sufficient access to the arts, they say.
Many responses are possible.
For example, capitalism has done more to bring the arts to a mass audience than government could ever do. Thanks to capitalism, you can buy Beethoven's nine symphonies on compact disk for under ten dollars. You can play the greatest movies ever produced in your living room. You don't have to go back very far to reach a time when even well-off people would be lucky to hear fine music performed once in a lifetime. Moreover, the rich have always generously made art available to a wide audience.