Propaganda Don't Come Cheap

The wheels of injustice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.

And, as Doug Valentine points out, the laws and bureaucracy must be set up to facilitate widespread repression, for it to be effective.
It works the same with the information control apparatus.

In 2013, Obama signed a repeal of the Smith Mundt Act, which outlawed US government propaganda being directed at Americans, but it wasn't until 2017 that he signed the bill providing funding.

Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and know the reality of lack of funds limiting our activities.
Weirdly enough, though, most people never apply that to the activities of those we are taught to fear. 

How does ISIS get never-ending supplies of weapons and ammo, how do domestic shooters afford automatic weapons and ammo when they are living in their mother's basement, how do terrorists afford traveling the world?

But I digress. The propaganda machinery was funded in the 2017 budget, and we can all see the results today. It takes money and it takes personnel to put out the onslaught of nonsense with which we are inundated. That doesn't come cheap.

And the attack on RT is part of the attempt by our overlords to limit our access to conflicting information. (Conflicting with the stories they tell us).