The government' s proposed 8 percent cut in all subsidies to arts groups will be difficult for those groups to absorb. As can be seen, however, from their response to last year' s cut, it will not put them out of existence. Last year there was also an 8 percent cut, and though private fund-raising was very difficult for the arts groups in the current recessionary economy, they did survive. The reasoning in the argument is flawed because the argument ['overlooks the possibility that the cumulative effect of the cuts will be more than the arts groups can withstand', 'equates the mere survival of the arts groups with their flourishing', 'relies without warrant on the probability that the economy will improve', "does not take into account that the dollar amount of the proposed cut is lower than the dollar amount of last year's cut"]