Posted on 10/04/2012 7:14:29 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
In last nights presidential debate, Republican challenger Mitt Romney offered his plan for reducing the $1.1 trillion deficit. He proposed lowering taxes in a way that would be revenue neutral and reducing federal spending. But he offered few specifics on how he would implement it, which is a common problem when politicians discuss deficit reduction. Romney didnt outline deductions and loopholes he would eliminate to make his tax plan revenue neutral. Certainly, though, theres wiggle room there, because the U.S. leaves about as much revenue on the table from deductions and loopholes each year $1.2 trillion as it collects in taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.chron.com ...
there is no reason PBS should be tax exempt.
it is just enabling bias.
>>The way to balance the budget is to get the 25% of Americans that arent working back to work.
The way to do that is to get the illegals out of the country and demand that the drones work and eliminate
their welfare. It must be a living wage as the illegals arte living and sending money out of the country to their families.
Honestly it was the one issue “bone” I didn’t understand why he would throw out to the media during a debate, unless it was done to placate conservatives. NPR/PBS budget is miniscule comparatively speaking, and although I like some of their programming, I directly blame Sesame Street for promoting children’s dependence on television at younger and younger ages...but why debate that now?
Why should the government be involved in broadcasting in the first place?
But Big Birds rotting carcaus will serve as a great trail marker on the path to balancing it.
there is no reason PBS should be tax exempt.
it is just enabling bias.
Definitely! Any of these PBS programs that are that popular will find a place on commercial TV.
Where they will be subjected to ratings like their competitors. If they can’t cut it, why were we subsidizing them in the first place?
I certainly wasn’t arguing that they should... I am absolutely opposed to it. However, bringing it up in a debate is a distraction... this is the sort of idiotic story the lazy media loves to run with.
My point being... have this debate AFTER the election is over.
Big Bird is an excellent place to start, showing the people that no cow or bird is sacred.
Well, that didn't really kill the try by the GOP to stop funding PBS but it did help the MSM spread the word about “killing off Big Bird”.
Problem is too many “too small to matter” expenditures are being made on the same basis. A few billion to this country or that, some study of studies that “only” costs a few million, a few hundred million to this, a few hundred million to that, and on and on.
The point is that it's borrowed money that cannot ever be paid back and increasingly not even paid for.
A broad axe would be more appropriate.
Snuffing one Big Bird might not solve our deficit problem, but snuffing the THOUSANDS of Big Bird programs & their overpaid bureaucrats will make significant cuts
Big Bird will not be snuffed.
Big Bird will be bought by Disney and become a stand alone channel and then get rich
I remember a PBS ad campaign from years ago....
“If not PBS, them WHO?”
I irritated my wife by answering (every time)... “Discover, TLC, National Geographic,....” and on and on :)
Sell some ads, hire some folks, let the free market determine if you are worth remaining on the air.
The federal subsidy for PBS is $444 million. That doesnt even move the needle on deficit reduction. Later in the debate, Romney also said hed cut subsidies for Amtrak $1.42 billion and the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities another $146 million. Thats a total of just over $2 billion. He hasnt made enough of a difference for it to even affect the rounding of the deficit number. It would remain at $1.1 trillion with the cuts he proposed....Ya know, cutting 444,000,000,1.42 billion and 146 million pretty soon adds up to some serious money. To paraphrase some dead asshole.
So let’s not even bother cutting anything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.