Posted on 02/18/2011 5:15:18 PM PST by Kaslin
Puppet Pork: If you wonder why it's hard to cut spending, consider the throng of U.S congressmen lining up with Arthur the Aardvark to defend PBS funding from budget cutters. A $14 trillion deficit doesn't tickle us, Elmo.
It wasn't an episode of "Sesame Street," but it might have been. There on the Capitol steps was Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., accompanied by fellow Democratic Reps. Paul Tonko, Bill Owens and Nita Lowey of New York and Betty McCollum of Minnesota, with a bevy of Muppets to fight against cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget.
"This is an ideological attack on public broadcasting," Markey said. "Arthur, you're silence is eloquent."
We are not making this up. A U.S. congressman was discussing public policy with Arthur the Aardvark.
He's a puppet, Ed.
Actually, it would be a sensible move to trim at least one ornament from the liberal tree, one that has outlived its usefulness and is a luxury we can no longer afford. Then again, Markey et al. thought spending stimulus money on turtle tunnels was a good way to stimulate the economy.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-N.C., has taken particular aim at CPB and its corporate offspring, PBS, noting on his blog that in 1967, when CPB was created to "facilitate the development of public communications," there were only a handful of television stations with limited viewing choices.
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Some more info on Arthur and his spinoff show, Buster. Supposedly preschooler show/indoctrination is about openly lesbian ‘parents’. I saw this episode, it featured a ‘family’ consisting of two women ‘mommies’ who are ‘married’ and have children. Yep, defund it.
Heh... still nothing beats Rep. David Wu talking about Klingons in the White House.
Arthur’s teacher is a rat with a lisp. Need I say more?
Not one penny of tax dollars should go to anything other than funding the basic functions of government. That is all.
I’ll note that the licensing of Sesame Street products is HIGHLY profitable. Why aren’t Sesame Street’s profits being used to cover production and broadcast costs ? After all, if nobody watched it, they couldn’t sell their stuff. . .
Just askin’. . . . (evil grin)
The muppets make millions in selling merchandise. Let them fund their own programs. There is absolutely no need to steal funds from taxpayers.
These shows have made their owners rich off the backs of the taxpayers. Why can’t they make it on their own?
PBS needs to re-negotiate the contracts for sale of merchandise based on it’s programming. From what I understand, PBS doesn’t receive much of anything from the enormous market in toys, books, etc. based on the Muppets, Sesame Street, Dora, etc. characters. If they were to make more money off their programming, they could probably fund their programs, along with member donations.
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