I suspect there are many individual subscriptions out there that are supported by grant money or other sources. If the monies used to support these cancelled individual subscriptions were somehow transferred into the library budgets that would be one thing, but they're not. I am constantly amazed at people who think that libraries have magical pots of money or no budgetary constraints. He seems to think that libraries can control the size of their own budgets and obtain whatever amount of money that they need from their funding sources. Money is not an unlimited resource.
Some states fund their universities better than others.
Some universities fund their libraries better than others. To think that library budgets can keep absorbing gigantic increases is completely wrong. I have spent twenty years trying to build collections wherever I have worked, but all I have really become successful at is slashing journal collections to keep within budget restrictions. And I'm not happy about it.