Is Public Broadcasting Needed Anymore?

The "cost" of public broadcasting is negligible, so it boils down to a philosophical debate. If you're taking a red pen to the Federal budget this doesn't even make a dent.

The second post of this thread pretty much nailed it. When you get down to brass tacks, nobody's going to "defund" Sesame Street.

 

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to a budget surplus?

 

Two weeks worth of government subsidies to corn growers would cover NPR's annual budget.

 

Without the local NPR and PBS stations, there wouldn't have been live coverage of the last senatorial debates or gubernatorial debates. None of the commercial stations carried them, even though they were free for the taking.

 

And boring documentaries, long-winded, left-leaning hosts who sounded like they just woofed down a couple of Xanax and money-begging funding drives are in the "general welfare?" No.

Let the market decide NPR's fate. Its ratings are miniscule. No, make that non-existent. They make MSNBC's look like a slammer. The only reason that crap (in all fairness, I did like the Ken Burns documentaries, but those could've easily made it on a private sector network considering their following) exists is because they feed at the Federal trough like seemingly everything else. I'm tired of being told the government can't do without a single cent of my hard-earned salary, gobbled up out of my check before I even see it.

As for the rest of government:
The interstate system was designed with military traffic in mind, so yes, that was a legit use of federal funds. But I had my druthers, I'd let the states handle most of the road funding. Why should taxpayers in New York and California pay to build a bridge in Mississippi or a tunnel in Colorado?

When you siphon resources to a great, central clearinghouse like our Federal government has become, it allows them too much power and causes some money to be wasted along the way. Reduce the federal gasoline tax and let states tax gasoline and fund their roads as they see fit. It's a lot easier to complain to your state representative or senator than it is to your U.S. representative or senator. As we learned in the military, things are always handled better lower in the chain of command. It's a shame that more civilians haven't learned that valuable lesson. Your local and state government know much more about your community's issues than a "one-size-fits-all" approach that the Feds often espouse.

The only thing that the Feds should be involved with are: defense, coinage, environmental regulation, some law enforcement, national parks, space exploration (not like we have much of that anymore) and interstates and U.S. highways. The rest needs to be cut. There is no need for a Department of Agriculture, OSHA, Homeland Security, Education, Energy or any of this mess that has piled on layer and layer and layer of useless pencil-pushing bureaucrats who are paid like plutocrats. The Feds have too much power as it is. It needs to be pruned back. The amount of money consumed as a portion of GDP by the Feds needs to be pruned below 20 percent.

Otherwise, we're headed on an express elevator to inflationary hell where the dollar isn't worth squat. NPR is a small part of that, but you have to start somewhere. A thousand cuts can still make you bleed out and die. The beast must be starved. It's either that or we default and that's a shit sandwich everyone will have to take a bite out of. The party's over, folks.

 

As Michael pointed out, in some of the big cities along the East Coast -- he mentioned Boston -- NPR draws a pretty big audience.

I imagine it does in places like Chicago and some of the big cities along the West Coast as well.

Those stations would all survive without federal funding because they have listener support.

 

You can get local news and traffic on NPR stations, at least some. The traffic's often not as comprehensive as commercial stations, and it's not brought to you by Bill and Marty in KBBL Chopper 4000, but it's there.

Keep in mind, as well, that the small local NPR stations are usually nothing more than a transmitter taking the feed from the bigger station. I can't imagine that costs very much, and it's a pretty valuable service.

 

Why are you comparing NPR (radio) with MSNBC (television)?

 

They both have ratings that don't scrape the bottom of the barrel. They're beneath the barrel, digging a hole to China. That's why. No other reason.

 

I think you are wronger than wrong about that. NPR isn't one nationwide radio station, ya know.

 

Yes, the FAA and air safety are highly overrated. So is the FDA. And the Social Security Administration. Among other things.