What's the Big Idea series

Big Bird is angry

Rappler.com

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In the first face-off between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney last October 4, Romney said he would push to end subsidies to PBS, the United States’ leading public broadcasting network. Romney told debate moderator Jim Lehrer, himself a PBS newsman: “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for things we don’t need.” PBS expressed “disappointment” over the statement, saying Romney “does not understand the value the American people place on public broadcasting and the outstanding return on investment the system delivers to our nation.” Federal funding of the agency equals “about one one-hundredth of one percent of the federal budget,” PBS added. “Elimination of funding would have virtually no impact on the nation’s debt. Yet the loss to the American public would be devastating.”

Read the full story on the Wall Street Journal


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