For James O'Keefe, "defunding NPR is obvious." He hasn't expanded on his reasoning, but the Republican line on NPR funding, in general, is that our deficit-ridden nature can't afford these kind of luxuries.
What we can afford, apparently, is to subsidize O'Keefe's work. He's applied for a 501(c)3 designation for his organization, Project Veritas, which would make all contributions to the group tax-deductible.
Abstaining from tax revenues to fund an organization is not the same as giving tax revenues to an organization, of course. But tax exemptions still cost the government money, and the IRS hands them out to all sorts of causes that are less clearly in the public interest than journalism, like, for instance, Bill Koch's yachting habit.
Back in the 1990s, Koch contributed $10 million to a foundation that funded, primarily, his ambition to win America's Cup, the premier race in international sailing. That contribution to his own greater glory (he won the race in 1992) also saved him "a couple million bucks," he said, on his taxes.
The justification his lawyers gave the IRS? The money was going to amateur athletes competing in an international sport, which the tax code recognizes explicitly as a cause for which funding is tax-deductible.
