re: #34 Destro

Well, it can be for a variety of reasons: to set something up permanently, rather than have it dependent on funding every year

Funding? It’s called taxes. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society” - Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

You’re trying really hard not to understand me.

Congress can decide to continually fund something, or they can decide to make it an independent non-profit by giving it an endowment. For a relevant example, the ‘land-grant’ schools (and sometimes sea-grant) are called that because they were given land, in perpetuity, to develop, use, etc. They don’t have to have their ownership of the land reauthorized— or any of the other funds given for their endowment.

While most of this schools are now the public state schools, somewhat intertwined with the state still, some are private, like MIT. MIT was started with government funds, a government land grant, but is a non-profit corporation.

There are other examples, things that have been made self-perpetuating and taken outside of the government. This is, if you think about it, a very smart move in many cases, because if you can make something self-perpetuating and not at the mercy of partisan politics, then rabid GOP jerks can’t defund it.

Does this help you understand?