Mitt Romney Tells Elmo to Get a Job and Pledges to Kill PBS

[TomClash]

Source: Politicsusa

In an interview with Fortune, Mitt Romney admitted that one of the ways he will reduce government spending is to cut all funding for PBS.

Romney was asked by Fortune where he would cut government spending, and he answered, “There are three major areas I have focused on for reduction in spending. These are in many cases reductions which become larger and larger over time. So first there are programs I would eliminate. Obamacare being one of them but also various subsidy programs — the Amtrak subsidy, the PBS subsidy, the subsidy for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some of these things, like those endowment efforts and PBS I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to strand (sic) on their own rather than receiving money borrowed from other countries, as our government does on their behalf.”

Mitt Romney was essentially telling Elmo and the rest of Sesame Street to stop being a bunch of bums and get a job. Mitt Romney’s vision for America includes the death of Amtrak, slashed funding for the arts and humanities, and a privatized PBS.

If you want to know what PBS would like without government funding turn on A&E, History Channel, or the ever oxymoronic Learning Channel. These networks have been long held up by Republicans as the private sector alternative to PBS, but look at the programming that these channels actually contain. Would Sesame Street be replaced with Pawn Stars? Instead of Antiques Roadshow, how about Storage Wars? Replace Downton Abbey with Toddlers and Tiaras.


Read more: http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-tells-elmo-job-pledges-kill-pbs.html

[Monk06]

1. Romney is reading from the teabagger prayer book. The man has no ideas and no spine. n/t

[goclark]

20. bingo tbags are slaves to the 1

percent.

[FiveGoodMen]

27. They're going to make us ALL slaves to the 1 percent.

Traitors, every last one of them.

[Flatpicker]

2. Does the Amtrak subsidy

Ending also mean that we won't prop up the airline industry?
It's all bulls**t. Those are a drop in the bucket vs the defense budget.

Typical Republican, trying to keep the rest of the populace uneducated by cutting funding to the things that can introduce some fun into learning.
We're heading into the American Dark Ages...

[WCGreen]

3. If he just paid his taxes it would pay for the operation of a few Public Radio

Stations

[PfcHammer]

4. He left out the NEA, NEH, and sending mentally retarded

people into space.

[dimbear]

5. Shoot me now, but kind of agree. NPR might finally grow a pair

and stop pandering to the right that doesn't support it.

I know. Dreamer.

[JaneyVee]

6. PBS is a National Treasure. There is no TV programming better than Frontline, POV, Nova

And MILLIONS depend on Amtrak. And cutting the NEA funding is a douchebag thing to do.

EDIT: ObamaCare is the greatest piece of legislation in 50yrs.

[xxqqqzme]

7. And does that

slash the budget by even 1%?

[elbloggoZY27]

8. The Wonderful GOP

What a great group. They have taken the low road on everything that makes the United States Great. Their whole Agenda has nothing Progressive in it.

They have Blocked every positive move that happens in Congress and all because Mr. Obama is President.

So there is nothing surprising that they will attack PBS, Women's Reproduction Rights, Federal Employees (Pay Freeze) etc.


So when you vote which they are trying to interfere with remember that what you Sow You Reap. Keep the GOP out of Congress and definitely out of the White House.

[alp227]

18. The Public Broadcasting Act of '67 actually passed with strong GOP support.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/90-1967/h140

AYES: 166 D, 99 R
NAYS: 35 D, 55 R

thus, most Republicans did vote to establish the CPB. Hell, even DONALD RUMSFELD when he represented IL-13 back then. So did Gerald Ford (MI-5). It seems that the PBA vote in 1967 was on regional, not party lines; the Northeast had a large majority of yea votes; the South most likely had noes.

You can read the original senate hearings for the PBA from Apr. 1967 here: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b643550

I still can't find the senate vote, but the bill in the senate was S. 1160, if that helps.

[JoePhilly]

9. Sorry Big Bird, the super rich have NEEDS.

[noel711]

10. "We love "Downton Abbey" cooed Ann Romney

"Nah," said Mitt, "Kill it! We don't need that. It's too expensive.."

So... we'll just go to the default channel.. I mean commercial,
profit making entertainment, privately owned.

So the public can enjoy "The BAchelor" and "Big Brother.."
YOu know, programming suitable for YOU people.

And Amrak?
Trains.. good. But not publicly funded tranportation.
Let's go back to the gilded age of railroad barons.
Yeah.. those were the good old days.

[azurnoir]

11. and don't forget 'great shows like toddlers and tiara's and here comes honey boo boo

the public really needs those

[Stewland]

12. The cost of ignorance

The result of the Republican policies is suffering on a scale hard to imagine. Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. The wheel of Karma goes round and round the rich ones could do much good in the world but would rather hoard and clamor for more. The Tea Party and Republicans represent a form of evil this nation will have to face sooner or later.

[Lochloosa]

15. Welcome to DU Stewland

[MichDem10]

13. Cut funding for Elmo, BUT CONTINUE to SUBSIDIZE BIG OIL!!!

These scumbags make me want to puke!

[hifiguy]

14. Another Repig who knows the cost of everything and the value

of nothing. This silly SOB is the kind of guy who'd hire the Amish to appraise diamonds and look for Orthodox Jews to help him raise a barn.

[newspeak]

30. yeah, well when they did surveys of people who were more

knowledgeable about political and world events, those watching PBS did better than those watching the corporate networks, especially faux snooze.

Can't have the plebes knowing what the hell is going on, can we?

[CBHagman]

16. Another reason he comes off as obscenely overprivileged and gratuitously nasty.

This is how I can tell he never had to think about whether to take the train or the bus to a family gathering in another state.

He could certainly afford as many subscriptions to the opera as he liked, but the same can't be said of the retirees and students and cubicle rats who listen to/watch opera on public broadcasting.

But what this brings home the most is one of the most odious but frequently seen traits in this country, namely the belief that making a profit is not only the highest good but the only good.

On edit: And proving your fiscal conservative bona fides by taking an axe to the NEA, NEH, CPB, and Amtrak is like declaring you'll lose weight by giving up Tic-Tacs. This is an ideological move, not stewardship.

[theHandpuppet]

23. For many, PBS serves as the only link to the arts

It's not just whether one can afford to go to the opera or a concert (though I personally couldn't afford the clothes required for some of those events!) For millions of folks in a country as expansive as ours, PBS provides the only venue by which folks can enjoy concerts of all kinds, tour the world's great art museums, explore treausres of history, architecture, science et al. And you're certinaly right on when you point out that there are many other folks who for a myriad of reasons may have physical limitations that prohibit them from being able to enjoy all of these things in person.
I've never understood the RW hostility towards PBS.
Lastly, since Baron Von Mittsterflugel thinks PBS should be left to the tender mercies of private contributors, just how much have he and his brood contributed? I'd love to see those tax returns if for nothing else but to see what kind of charitable giving he's claimed!

[nobodyspecial]

17. Anybody have figures on what percentage of the budget is spent on these three areas?

TLC's latest offering:
HERE COMES HONEY BOO BOO, an inside look into Alana’s world where the six-year-old pageant sensation proves that she is more than a beauty queen. When she's not chasing after crowns, Alana’s with her family in rural Georgia doing what her family does best: four-wheeling through mud pits and picking up road kill for the family cookout.

Each episode follows Alana and her family: stay-at-home mom June, chalk-mining dad Sugar Bear, and sisters 12-year-old Lauryn “Pumpkin”, 15-year-old Jessica “Chubbs”, and 17-year-old pregnant Anna “Chickadee”. From family outings to loud and crazy family get-togethers, HERE COMES HONEY BOO BOO takes us off the pageant stage and into the unapologetically outrageous family life of the Honey Boo Boo clan.
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/here-comes-honey-boo-boo/about-here-comes-honey-boo-boo.htm

[pinboy3niner]

19. Just like his plan for the poor, working poor and middle class to "strand on their own"

Unfortunate freudian slip there, Mitt.

[Marrah_G]

21. Everything has to make a profit for big business and the bankers in Mitts world

[Tracer]

22. Apparently, Mr. "Axe The Good Stuff" rMoney

seems to have forgotten that PBS stands for the PUBLIC Broadcasting System, not the PRIVATE Broadcasting System.

The self-serving asshole.

[mwooldri]

24. OMG! Romney wants to kill Big Bird! (oh btw Cheney's got a gun and all that...)

This *could* be a big weapon. But the PBS affiliated TV stations, nor can PBS itself do anything about it pre-election.

Only when they come up for the chopping block could anything be done. If they do get chopped, then certain shows would *have* to be "rested". PBS may well have to change its affiliate fee structure. This would quite likely force less well off PBS affiliates to either de-affiliate or to go off the air entirely.

Amtrak would then have to cut back only to routes that make money. Loss making lines would no longer see passenger service.

Maybe I need to set up my own 501(c)3 educational foundation, get lots of money from somewhere and put up my own TV adverts.

[qwlauren35]

25. How can ANYONE Compare PBS with A&E?

The original concept for A&E was very ambitious and I looked forward to seeing its programming. But the Arts part is gone, and the Entertainment part is moronic. (Except for Criminal Minds... I love Criminal Minds.) Now, I am no fan of Antiques Roadshow. But the comparison just stinks.

[CBHagman]

26. And PBS doesn't do blocks of the same programs.

I had cable back when A&E and Bravo had reliably interesting schedules -- films, drama and comedy series, etc. Back then AMC was also still in American Movie Classics mode and more like TCM.

Then things shifted, mostly due to shifting ownership of the various channels, from what I understand. It's disturbing to see how very low U.S. cable television aims, though there are occasional exceptions to that, TCM being an obvious example.

Americans have to pay to watch edited-down TV shows and movies, and numerous commercials, and that's apart from all the swill that's on cable. How is this considered programming worth $70, $80, $90, or $100-plus a month?

[newspeak]

31. not really into the manipulated reality shows

just viewing a few had me shaking my head. Some of the most shallow, ignorant, just plain dumb scenarios. I think it's the orchestrated effort to dumb down the american people. little boots had no qualms telling the public about "catapulting the propaganda", especially hyping the war on iraq. Of course, the corporate networks (some who stood to make money off of war) were very willing to "sell" the people on it.

[YankeyMCC]

28. Never mind 'do nothing' we're going

actually Undo government.

Someone should point out to the RR team that we don't establish governments because they are fun, sh*t needs to get done and be managed.

[Yavin4]

29. Romney Wants PBS Even More Dependent on the Wealthy Elite

That way there will be no hard hitting investigation pieces, no Bill Moyers, no Frontline, and NOVA will be forced to treat Creationism as science.

[wordpix]

32. as he gets more specific, I hate Rmoney even more than before

Bad enough he won't pay more than 13% in taxes, if anything, but now he's gonna make up for it by cutting arts and education funding. What a complete ZERO of a man

In days gone by, people and families like JP Morgan, the Mellons and the Rockefellers donated land, estates, museums and money to the American people for parks, honoring history and showcasing the arts.

All Rmoney wants to do is get richer.