Cut NPR--not PBS

Republicans have gotten giddy with their new chance at Washington governing and understandably so, yet with leadership comes the reality of sacrifice, and the individual who holds the purse strings must also be ready to command a degree of professional restraint rather than arbitrarily calling down orders of change because of position. It cannot be said that the budget needs no cutting, yet silencing the voice of a beneficial program which has historically been a tremendous aid to children is not prudent in the long term scenario of American prosperity.

National Public Radio has existed now on forty-one years, yet the results have been at best, disappointing. Poor broadcasts, little reliability, and questionable impartiality are all marks of a weak and ineffective news system, making the desire to cut funding for it more rational as a pursuit. Worldwide the factors remain similar, and one might point to only the fleeting successes of the BBC, which at best lives on because of intensified government intervention.

Alongside this however, the prospect of eliminating the Public Broadcasting System is depressing at best because it cuts off a viable source of positive learning and entertainment for the average American schoolchild. From the days of Mr. Rogers to the beneficial programs of the modern day, PBS is a vital aspect to child learning which contrasts to the more mindless content of Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network that now propagates cable. The station's broadcasts also include useful programs regarding education and learning enforcement which would likely go out of business without the support of the taxpayers in America and the federal direction that it presently enjoys.

Americans have already come to the reality that cutting the budget is necessary, yet this is one area inside of which deductions would be negative to the future development of the younger generations in America. Cuts need to be focused on wasteful spending that has no foreseeable benefit to the coming generations and on departments which push more papers than provide for the public good. At the end of the day, what works well in society and more importantly that which has its sources in the government must be kept for the welfare of the people. Eradicating tenets that build up our country as a whole  should be last on the list of trimming, even in desperate times, as the cost of their vanishing cannot be easily measured or recovered during the short term.

Conservatives deserve credit for trying, yet there remain some untouchable regions which are best left to serve the public.




Cate Ashton

National Alliance Vice President for Domestic Issues