In 1994 Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich tired to rid the nation of the horror of Public Broadcasting saying, "The Rush Limbaugh Program is Public Radio." He failed, but he and most conservatives have been trying to destroy it every year since its inception in 1967. Now with the writing on the wall coming this November, George W. Bush – with the help of the Heritage Foundation is taking one last stab at eliminating both PBS and NPR. Here are a few key excerpts from the syndicated column that hit the newspapers over the weekend.
It’s Time For Public Broadcasting to Pay its Own Way
By Ken Mcintyre – the Marilyn and Fred Guardabassi Fellow in Media and Public
Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Common sense says public broadcasting should be a prime target for budget savings. Hundreds of millions of dollars devoted to this diminished mission could go to problems that have worsened over the years — to provide tax relief, reduce the debt, strengthen national security or fix Social Security.
Notice the order of importance from the Heritage Foundation, TAX RELIEF first. As always it is the most important thing to very well paid Republicans (who work at the Heritage Foundation). It is the front, the center, the top and the bottom line of what Republicans are. All else is secondary to moving the cost of governance down the ladder, away from their responsibility. Their concern is not debt, health care, war, security, family values or God himself, it is their personal pocketbook. The high road.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting recently asked Congress to invest $483 million in its television, radio and other operations in fiscal 2011 — up from $400 million. Today’s taxpayer "contribution," by the way, is double what it was 20 years ago.
That paragraph is why I am writing this. The absurdity of it caused me to ball up the newspaper and throw it at the cat.
This war in Iraq – which this very foundation pushed for – costs well over $120 billion a year and rising, which costs each American $300 a year. PBS and NPR together cost $400 million a year which costs each American less than $1 a year. We are paying 300 times as much for a bloody, horrible, endless, unnecessary war than for intelligent broadcasting that is not dependent – as commercial television is – upon drowning our kids in sugar and their parents in beer and drugs.
In an annual ritual, President Bush proposes to cut half of the $400 million already appropriated, cut an additional $220 million slated for the next year and disallow the entire $483 million "advance" for 2011.
And to top this craziness off, George W. Bush – worried about his legacy – wants to go out as the President who killed Big Bird.