PBS, NEA, AmeriCorps on the chopping block in Trump’s first budget

Hotair ^ | 02/18/2017 | John Sexton

[SeekAndFind]

The New York Times reported yesterday that the White House budget office has prepared a list of programs that could be eliminated in Trump’s first budget proposal. Among those programs are the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities and AmeriCorps. From the NY Times:

Work on the first Trump administration budget has been delayed as the budget office awaited Senate confirmation of former Representative Mick Mulvaney, a spending hard-liner, as budget director. Now that he is in place, his office is ready to move ahead with a list of nine programs to eliminate, an opening salvo in the Trump administration’s effort to reorder the government and increase spending on defense and infrastructure…

Many of those programs have been attacked by conservatives since the Republican “revolution” of 1994. Led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, the House of Representatives at the time repeatedly went after funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, whose supporters dragged Big Bird and Kermit the Frog to Capitol Hill to make their case…

Other agencies on the budget office’s list of cuts include the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Corporation for National and Community Service, which finances programs run by AmeriCorps and SeniorCorps. The memo also proposed reducing funding for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a nonprofit organization focused on urban development.

You probably don’t have to guess where this is going. Every time someone threatens to cut PBS funding, progressives roll out Big Bird. In fact, Obama for America did this in 2012 after Mitt Romney said he would cut PBS funding. Here’s an ad they created which has been viewed more than 3 1/2 million times:

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

The real problem with zeroing out these programs isn’t that it will kill Big Bird. Sesame Street could make it in the free market without the $500 million a year CPB gets in taxpayer funds. The real problem is that these cuts, which together amount to $2.5 billion a year, won’t put a real dent in our growing debt.

As the debt clock approaches $20 trillion dollars, it’s important to remember that government spending is overwhelmingly dedicated to two big entitlement programs: Medicare and Social Security. We spend nearly $900 billion dollars a year on Social Security and over $900 billion a year on Medicare and associated programs (Medicaid, CHIP, etc). Since that is where the real money is, addressing our debt without touching these big programs is impossible.

But back when he was a candidate, Trump said a number of times that he would not be cutting Social Security or Medicare. This clip shows about four instances where he publicly promised no cuts to these programs.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO

Cutting funds to CPB and the NEA could be a symbolic victory for conservatives who have long argued these programs are wasteful. I get that. But unless this is just a first step, one which leads us to eventually addressing the real drivers of our debt, these cuts aren’t going to make much of a difference.

[poconopundit]

You know, it's a shame that public-funded broadcasting has a bad name.  But they brought ruin to themselves -- not just through partisan politics -- but through failure to produce programs of enduring value.

My wife gets the Japanese NHK public TV network on Dish and it's filled with many marvelous programs that I enjoy even though I don't speak Japanese.

NHK works to strengthen the country moral fiber and unify the country whereas PBS doesn't do nearly enough to elevate our national life.

A great example of what can be done in America is the Taiga Drama series, an annual mega-drama that spans 50 episodes -- 45 minutes per week (no commercial interruption).

Each Taiga Drama is a melodrama featuring an era in Japanese history (usually the samurai period).  Each Drama is centered around one man or one woman who was an important figure, or someone related to an important figure.

The word "Taiga" in Taiga Drama means "Great River" in the sense that a person's life can be considered a long river of experience.

The production values and musical score are always standouts in these Dramas.

Imagine if 100 of Hollywood's top actors got together every year to produce -- not a politically charged film -- but a morality play that reinforces the national values of loyalty, dedication, chivalry, loyalty, family, and sacrifice.

The closest thing to this in America was the series on the Civil War many years ago.

And the actors in the Taiga Drama span all ages.  Kid actors are prominent in the first two or three episodes of each year's drama (5-minute YouTube example)

Then actors in their 20s and 30s dominate the rest of the episodes -- and many of these actors are stunningly handsome dressed in the costumes of the period.

Senior actors are also prominent, and many of them were stars in previous Dramas spanning 30 years.

---

So I spent some time with this description because it's a model for what great public programming can be.  We can only hope that the MAGA movement will inspire similar heights of national art in America.

[ronnie raygun]

FINALLY! GOOD! let them fend for themselves,”want to spew your puke freely”, insult Christianity with you jesus on a cross in a glass of piss? would you dare do this to islam? Academia should be next defund all the universities and let them fend for themsselves

[wardaddy]

Winning!

[newnhdad]

But what about Big Bird? Why do they hate children so much?

[Liz]

NHK is one of my fave channels.....the range of programming is spectacular.

Nothing lightweight like US TV.

[Drango]

Take the first step. Then the second, third...

[wally_bert]

Is there an english sub-titled version?

[csvset]

We cut cable 6 years ago. We found Asian dramas and watch Korean, Chinese and Japanese television shows. Hard to take the junk spewn out from WhollyWeird, which I don’t miss at all.

[glorgau]

The real problem is that these cuts, which together amount to $2.5 billion a year, won’t put a real dent in our growing debt.

Couple a billion here and a couple of billion there and pretty soon it adds up to real money.

[ontap]

He needs to end to funding of the arts too!!!

[trebb]

A dent here, a dent there, pretty soon you're talkin' real money.

Yep - they carp that it's only 2.5 billion of a 4 trillion budget - I bet there's at least 400 other potential savings to match that could make a whole trillion difference....

[mad_as_he$$]

“The real problem is that these cuts, which together amount to $2.5 billion a year, won’t put a real dent in our growing debt.”

So? I don’t want my tax money spent on anti-American programs. Period end of story. PBS is full of leftist politics and insane positions on the issues. Don’t get my going on the NEA.

[petro45acp]

BRAVO

MAGA

Been looking forward to the day when unnecessary agencies, with authority/sway over day to day activities and no Constitutional reason for exixtence, would begin to disappear.
Keep the pressure on
KYPD

[BRL]

I can finally die and go to heaven

[bert]

The funds taken out of the budget for PBS, NEA, NeH etc will be repurposed for the dilapidated military

We need aircraft maintenance, not piss in a jar

[bert]

Republican governors can banish NPR on state owned radio stations. Virtually all NPR broadcasts are made over state owned radio stations

[Tucker39]

The libs wail that without gubmint funds, Big Bird & Miss Piggy will not survive. I believe licensing and sales of those PBS props can support PBS. The gubmint Million$ goes for $$$alaries for the fatcats who run PBS. Ditto the others.

[poconopundit]

Yes, all the Taiga Dramas NHK runs also have an English subtitles version. Not sure how to find it, but they are telecast about 2 months after the Japanese-only version.

csvset, yes, we also subscribe only to NHK, no other cable stations.

[who knows what evil?]

If rich libs want this stuff, they can pay for it.

Word.

[odawg]

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to subsidize Leftwing bias and opinion.”

I have never been able to understand how PBS, taxpayer subsidized, is allowed to do that, or would want to do that. There are a few things I watch on PBS — Nova, This Old House, some British shows, etc. The news is all Leftist propaganda and unwatchable.

I noticed a few weeks ago they were running ads about “one world” or something like that. I didn’t watch long enough to see what that was about.