We need the money to defend ourselves from all the countries who are going to attack us when we start shit with them.

White House’s plan for federal spending next year also includes a ban on using federal funds for subscriptions and publishing fees for some academic journals.

I'd support ban on using federal funds for subscriptions or publishing fees for all journals. Frankly, journals don't do anything most of the time. You tell them who the reviewers ought to be, and they accept it. The reviewers read over it and make suggestions. You make your minor edits (or if you wrote a shit paper and were dumb enough to suggest competent reviewers, you get to do more work). Then the journal puts the paper through an automated pipeline and hosts it on a web site.

Reach out to reviewers yourself, make an open source version of the pipeline and have scientific societies host the papers as torrent links (maybe an IRC chat too find reviewers), mandate universities seed their papers, and cut this parasitic industry out of our society.

budget document says that the proposal would maintain funding for research on quantum information and artificial intelligence ... plans to increase applied research funding on those topics at the defence and energy departments ... But basic quantum and AI research funding at NSF, for example, would be cut by 37% and 32%, respectively.

Grifters at AIPAC taking basic science money for finance bros.