Bush Proposes to Cut PBS Funding by 30% (sob)

http://www.apts.org/news/budget07.cfm ^ | February 6, 2006 | FreeManDC

[dead]

the budget proposes no federal funding for FY2009

Even allowing for breathless hyperbole from a liberal suddenly finding out he'll have to earn his keep in the real world, this statement leaves little wiggle room.

No funding is no funding, not less growth. Hope it stands up, but I'm skeptical.

[nopardons]

GREAT! This is certainly a step in the right direction. :-)

[epow]

Awesome! I just wish he proposed 100% cuts.

Amen to that brother, and cut out NPR funding while they're at it.

The American people paying to keep PBS and NPR on the air makes as much sense as would the Israeli people paying to keep Al Jazeera on the air. If the lefty moonbats have to have their own propaganda network let George Soros pay for it.

[SteveMcKing]

"THANK YOU", PBS, FOR ONLY STEALING 70% OF WHAT YOU INTENDED....

[quantim]

This will be killed in Congress. Not a chance.

Agreed, but with a new face on SCOTUS perhaps the line-item veto may again be on the horizon.

[Army Air Corps]

"the budget proposes no federal funding for FY2009"

Oh, dare I dream of such things! For me, it is not that PBS is heavily biased (mucho biased) as much as it is federally funded. I am opposed to state-funded media, period.

[AlexandriaDuke]

Oh please. Why don't you just post that Charlie Brown will kick the football a mile this year?

[manwiththehands]

What a bunch of CRAP!

This is an ELECTION year.

Conservatives are being PANDERED to.

Get real. Open your eyes.

[MJY1288]

Where is the "Triumph" dog when we need him :-)

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

We need across the board spending cuts, in every single program.

In general I agree. But, if you look at the budget, two thirds of it go to entitlement programs. Cutting ten million here and there from NASA, defense, etc., is a drop in the bucket. We can only correct the budget by cutting giveaways/vote buying programs.

[billbears]

by cutting giveaways/vote buying programs.

You mean like No Child Left Behind or healthcare reform? Oh wait, those are Republican agenda items aren't they? The budget cut again is one half of one percent. And I seriously doubt even that will be cut. This is pandering for votes and nothing else

[Reagan Man]

>>>>The Administration’s budget proposal would rescind more than $100 million in federal funding for public broadcasting over FY2007 and FY2008. Lawson said: “In addition to drastic cuts over the next two years, the budget proposes no federal funding for FY2009.

After five budgets with NO cuts, we now two budgets that cut PBS and call for zero funding for 2009.

Well, better late then never. Lets all hope it happens.

[yawningotter]

The numbers that I remember back when Newt tried to cut the funding for PBS was in the area of $500 million in revenue for Barney merchandise and about $700 million for Sesame Street. I would like to know how much PBS related merchandise brings in now, especially since there are so many more PBS kids shows that are heavily marketed than in the '90s. I remember that the one of the problems then was that while PBS merchandise produced billions, PBS hardly received any of it because the people in charge wouldn't negotiate contracts similar to what you would find in the private sector. Newt and company wanted to fix that, but I don't know how successful they were.

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Have no clue what you're talking about. Did you read my post? Is the BIG drug giveaway not an entitlement? I said cut the big ticket entitlements because these little cuts don't change the big picture. Sure, cut the small stuff too but don't starve defense just to add more wealth transfers.

[rock58seg]

100%. That's what I thought as I read the headline. Then I read the article, and was sure of it. Any job worth doing is worth doing well!

[kingu]

I'd challenge you to point to me the Article and Section of the US Constitution that authorized the Federal Government to pay for a television network.

Article I, Section 8 - provide for the general welfare, and likely tweeked off of ..promote Progress of Science and useful Arts.. as well.

Sort of how the commerce clause has been deeply abused.

Still bugs me that the constitution is very specific in that copyrights should be of a limited time, yet the DMA doesn't set such horizons.

[SALChamps03]

Well you beat me to it. I was going to say he is 70% short.

[Hank Rearden]

If only they go through with this, great. But in the past, they have always backed down.

Yep, and it needs to be a 100% cut as well.

Because, if it's just 30% (assuming they have the guts to follow through), PBS could survive it and come back to lobby for reinstatement (and more) later on.

If you get serious, get tough, and cut it 100%, after a couple years the parasitic constituency that sucks on the taxpayer teat will have (presumably) moved on to sucking on something else and may not be able to organize and rise up again to steal our money.

Kill it, don't put it on a temporary diet.

Die, Barney, die.

[TexasGreg]

Patience, grasshopper. 30% is a start ... and, according to the article, by 2009 it will be ZERO. Sounds reasonable. Here's what the article says:

The Administration’s budget proposal would rescind more than $100 million in federal funding for public broadcasting over FY2007 and FY2008. Lawson said: “In addition to drastic cuts over the next two years, the budget proposes no federal funding for FY2009. With this tactic, the Administration may be laying the foundation for the elimination of all federal funding for public broadcasting.”

Now ... doesn't that sound good?

[DarthVader]

He should hit NPR while he's at it.