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

[longknife]

So many government agencies that seemed to be so good in the beginning that have turned into havens for those who spend so little time actually “working.”

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. More @ PBS, NEA, AmeriCorps on the chopping block in Trump’s first budget - Hot Air

 

[OldLady]

My heart is on the ground about this. AmeriCorps does some good work around here, and helps not rich kids help pay back their student loans.
None of us should have to forego PBS or NPR.
Keep negotiating down the price of those fighter jets, President Trump! We need arts and rural community programs and the choice of intelligent broadcasting as much as new planes.

 

[Sunni Man]

None of us should have to forego PBS or NPR.

If they are soo popular.

Let them compete for audience shares on the open market, and self fund their programing like everyone else. ......

 

[NYcarbineer]

None of us should have to forego PBS or NPR.

If they are soo popular.

Let them compete for audience shares on the open market, and self fund their programing like everyone else. ......

They do. They always gotten the votes for the small amount of funding they get from the government.

 

[PredFan]

You go Mr. President!

 

[OldLady]

None of us should have to forego PBS or NPR.

If they are soo popular.

Let them compete for audience shares on the open market, and self fund their programing like everyone else. ......

No. NO. NOOOO! The 15% supplied by the government keeps them ticking without running 50/50 inane repetitive commercials every five minutes with their programming. And they get into a lot more depth than the MSM or the cable news, which is completely opinion tv. If you are a PBS watcher, you realize the quality of the programming is far above anything provided on the majors. Independent Lens, NOVA, Charlie Rose, etc. give us a different viewpoint and/or more information than we can find on other stations.
If you're not a tv watcher, fine. Keep out of it. Don't ruin it for the rest of us.

 

[Dim Bulb]

None of us should have to forego PBS or NPR.

If they are soo popular.

Let them compete for audience shares on the open market, and self fund their programing like everyone else. ......

No. NO. NOOOO! The 15% supplied by the government keeps them ticking without running 50/50 inane repetitive commercials every five minutes with their programming. And they get into a lot more depth than the MSM or the cable news, which is completely opinion tv. If you are a PBS watcher, you realize the quality of the programming is far above anything provided on the majors. Independent Lens, NOVA, Charlie Rose, etc. give us a different viewpoint and/or more information than we can find on other stations.
If you're not a tv watcher, fine. Keep out of it. Don't ruin it for the rest of us.

The thing that I don't get is that these are really tiny tiny amounts of money we're talking about. I'm particularly worried about the NEA as people use the tired old argument of pointing to one thing that is tasteless as the reason that the whole thing should be abolished. Which is a good political argument but not a logical one.

 

[washamericom]

my grandfather was the first asst. secretary of the NEA. i think he would say it's served it's purpose, time to let it go. i'd like to defund the politically unbalanced PBS and NPR.

President Trump Could Slash $500 Million from Public Broadcasting
www.breitbart.com/.../npr-donald-trump-may-defund-500-million-public-broadcastin...
Nov 22, 2016 - ... and defense spending by defunding non-essential federal spending, ... An NPR article described the 2016 election results as “nostalgia for a ...

 

[Sunni Man]

No. NO. NOOOO! The 15% supplied by the government keeps them ticking without running 50/50 inane repetitive commercials every five minutes with their programming. And they get into a lot more depth than the MSM or the cable news, which is completely opinion tv.

If the government funding is only 15% of their budget as you say. Then it should be easy for them to either increase their revenue, or slightly decrease their programing, to make up the difference.

Personally, I find their programming to lean very far left towards liberal socialist values and rhetoric. And as a taxpayer, I find it insulting to be forced to fund a political agenda I vehemently disagree with. .....