During last week’s presidential debate, Romney identified public broadcasting as one of the targets of his budget cuts, should he be elected.
“I’m sorry, Jim. I’m not going to keep the subsidy to PBS,” Romney told moderator Jim Lehrer. “I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too. But I’m not going to keep spending money on things, borrowing money from China to pay for it.”
Critics pounced.
Doesn’t Romney see the educational value of these programs? Doesn’t he understand that public broadcasting gets just one one-hundreth of one percent of the federal budget? Eliminating the funding would “devastate” public broadcasting but it wouldn’t even put a scratch in the debt. Doesn’t he get it? Don’t they know that public broadcasting only costs $1.35 per American per year?
All true.
But here’s the point: It is time Americans had, with the help of our elected leaders, a serious conversation about the proper role and reach of the federal government. Too often our elected leaders have steered us away from that conversation in order to keep buying our votes.
Is it really the role of the federal government, which is now running deficits of more than a trillion dollars annually, to subsidize Big Bird?
The solution for PBS is to allow it to compete in the marketplace with all the other radio stations. With a demographic that’s better educated, more well informed and has more disposable income, PBS would more than likely make more money than it does now as a subsidized program.
If this argument is going to be about our children, then let’s talk about the $16 trillion national debt we’ve left them. That $1.35 doesn’t stack up so well now.
The conversation this nation needs to have may begin with Big Bird, but it will of necessity have to include the new health care program, defense spending, and ultimately the entitlements of Medicare and Social Security as well as corporate welfare. It won’t stand to gut funding for “Sesame Street” and other children’s programs if we continue as a nation to bail out and subsidize oil companies, big agriculture, Wall Street firms and more.
Even if it just one one-hundreth of the way, Romney opened the door.
Opinion
Related Photos
Discussion
Our View: Romney's critics miss the mark
- Opinion
-
-
Our View: Spying on us
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
-
Our View: Pass on the legacy
Forty hungry members of the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry began gathering corn at the Rader farm near the village of Sherwood when they were ambushed by a guerrilla band of about 70 Southern sympathizers.
-
Our View: Big Brother looms large
The federal government, working under the cloak of secrecy, has been having a heyday at the expense of all Americans.
-
Our View: Disgraceful military assault
We want to make one thing clear: A sexual assault is not a sex scandal. Nor can the rise in sexual assaults in the military be justified in any way.
-
Elliott Denniston, guest columnist: Right-to-work laws only hurt workers
Middle-class workers have been fighting an uphill battle for the past 30 years.
-
Your View: Food drive efforts
Branch No. 366 of the National Association of Letter Carriers along with the National Rural Letter Carriers Association, the American Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Postal Service would like to thank all the area communities that participated in the 2013 Stamp Out Hunger food drive.
-
Your View: More about tax credit
The Globe’s editorial in “Our View” (May 10) may have left readers with a few inaccurate impressions.
-
Other Views: Sickening disparity
Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand the wide, sometimes huge, discrepancies in fees hospitals charge for the same procedure. Or if you don’t understand the arithmetical magic the hospitals use to arrive at those fees.
-
Carol Stark: America in need of more 'momisms'
Several years ago, I attended a writing workshop where one of the sessions was called “Tell it to Mom.”
-
Our View: Keep learning
Donna Maus, a biology teacher from St. Mary’s Colgan High School in Pittsburg, Kan., told a group of top students, their parents and their teachers something we think everyone needs to hear.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Probe Begins After Conn. Commuter Trains Crash
NTSB Begins Investigation Into Conn. Train Crash
Lotto Fever Sweeps the Country
Conn. Commuter Trains Collide; 60 Go to Hospital
Coffee Run Leads to Hatchet Hitchhiker Arrest
Fmr. IRS Head Insists No Politics in Targeting
CDC: Fecal Bacteria Common in Swimming Pools
$1 Million in Jewels Stolen at Cannes Film Fest
NM Mom Chases Down Child Abductor
Raw: Crash Sends Car Into Fla. Pool
Raw: Obama Sits Down With Elementary Kids
Raw: Bear Falls From Tampa Tree
Ousted IRS Chief: Errors Not Caused by Politics
Terror Suspect Due in Court in Idaho Friday
Raw: Driver Ejected From Truck, Over Bridge
Could Tobacco Be the Next Biofuel?
Wash. State Releases Draft Rules for Legal Pot
Dying Man's Blinks Lead to Murder Conviction
Officials: Texas Tornado Likely Had 200 Mph Wind
Brothers Arrested in NOLA Parade Shooting
