File puptcrit/puptcrit.0605, message 115


Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 00:07:23 -0400
From: jimpup-AT-aol.com
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] big bird to pay for Katrina


 Nancy,
Thanks for letting us know about this sinister plan.
 
Jim Malone
 
-----Original Message-----
From: NANCYSTAUB-AT-aol.com
To: puptcrit-driftline.org-AT-lists.driftline.org
Cc: nananola-AT-earthlink.net; Lesliestaub-AT-aol.com; Tas455-AT-aol.com; info-AT-hensonfoundation.org; allelu-AT-attglobal.net; cherylhenson-AT-gmail.com; TSPICTURES-AT-aol.com; elizstaub-AT-yahoo.com
Sent: Thu, 11 May 2006 19:07:40 EDT
Subject: [Puptcrit] big bird to pay for Katrina


  
Republicans target Big Bird to pay for Katrina recovery
By BILL STRAUB
Scripps Howard News Service
October 18, 2005 
WASHINGTON - If an influential group of House Republicans gets its way, Big 
Bird will have to pay his own way to Sesame Street, and Masterpiece Theater 
will begin searching for product placement opportunities - all to fund the 
Hurricane Katrina recovery. 
The Republican Study Committee, a conservative group within the House GOP 
caucus, has launched Operation Offset to cut spending by $102.1 billion in this 
year's budget to help pay for rebuilding New Orleans and other devastated 
environs. Among the targets in the group's bull's-eye: The National Endowment 
for 
the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting 
Officials estimate the rebuilding effort will exceed $200 billion, and many 
conservative lawmakers are uneasy about picking up that tab. It would add to a 
federal deficit that already had been projected to reach $314 billion. 
"Congress must ensure that a catastrophe of nature does not become a 
catastrophe of debt for our children and grandchildren," said Rep. Mike Pence, 
R-Ind., 
the committee's chairman. 
After some initial hesitation, House Republican leaders, as well as President 
Bush, agreed that offsetting budget cuts are in order, although what form 
they might take remains up for debate. 
If the Republican Study Group gets its way, part of the savings will come 
from eliminating federal funding for the arts and public television. According 
to 
Pence, that would save the Treasury $1.8 billion over 10 years - a down 
payment on the Katrina bill. 
Federal arts funding has long been a target of Republican budget-cutters. In 
1996, lawmakers not only slashed the appropriation to the National Endowment 
for the Arts by 39 percent but also adopted a provision to phase out the 
government's financial support for the program over two years. 
Eliminating the NEA, the federal government's primary funding source for 
non-profit theater and dance companies, never came to pass, however, as the 
endowment adopted new rules to make the type of art in line for funding more 
palatable to budget writers. 
In the late 1980s, the endowment encountered criticism for funding artists 
like photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, noted for his homoerotic images, and 
Andres Serrano, who raised hackles by dipping a crucifix into a vat of his 
urine. 
The agency responded with new regulations regarding its grant-making 
authority. In 1998, rather than shutter the operation, Congress reacted by 
ordering 
that state arts organizations receive a larger share of the fiscal pie. 
This year, Congress approved an NEA funding level of $125.6 million. The 
Republican Study Committee acknowledged in a policy statement that while the NEA 

has shifted its focus over the years to funding more traditional arts programs 
- dealing with areas like Shakespeare, folk music and opera - "the NEA 
continues to fund programs that some believe are of questionable value and 
appropriateness." 
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a larger and more recognizable 
entity, receiving $368.8 million in the 2005 federal budget. The money supports 
educational and cultural programs offered over stations that are members of the 
Public Broadcast System - Masterpiece Theater and Nova are prime examples - 
and helps pay for National Public Radio. 
Like the NEA, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has experienced its 
share of controversy, with conservatives complaining about liberal bias in its 
programming, although recent polls indicate viewers and listeners fail to detect 

any such slant. Kenneth Tomlinson, who recently stepped down as CPB chairman, 
ruffled feathers by seeking to bring what he characterized as balance to 
network programming, offering a public-affairs program hosted by conservative 
writer Tucker Carlson and a look at the workings of the Wall Street Journal's 
editorial board. 
Pence and the Republican Study Committee note that the CPB and the Public 
Broadcasting System "continue to use federal funding to pay for questionable 
programming, such as a documentary on sex education funded by the Playboy 
Foundation." A lot of the programming, such as the popular children's show 
Sesame 
Street, "could bring in enough annual revenues to cover the loss of federal 
funding." 
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., one of those urging steep budget cuts to pay 
for hurricane recovery, said the initiative must be accomplished without raising 

taxes or adding to the national debt, which recently surpassed the $8 
trillion mark. 
"When the families of my district in western North Carolina have unforeseen 
expenses arise, they have to look for other, less-important items to cut from 
the family budget," McHenry said. "Government needs to apply that same common 
sense. We must not allow the liberals in Congress to politicize this issue and 
use it as their latest excuse to raise taxes." 
McHenry cited Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, who said 
Hurricane Katrina destroyed every school in four of his state's counties. 
"Eliminating the federal share of CPB funding would free up $400 million this 
year," he said. "That is enough money to build 40 elementary schools." 
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, McHenry said, already receives 85 
percent of its funding from sources other than the federal government. 
"Certainly, public television has its benefits, but we have to be responsible 
and choose our priorities," he said. "What is more important, funding the 
Lehrer News Hour or building schools to educate our children?" 
But Brad Woodhouse, spokesman for the Emergency Campaign for America's 
Priorities, a group backed by organized labor to oppose budget cuts, said the 
effort 
has nothing to do with Katrina and everything to do with GOP efforts to 
salvage tax cuts enacted under President Bush, most of which have benefited the 
wealthy. 
"The idea that these cuts are to offset Katrina relief is hogwash," he said. 
"If offsets were a priority for this crowd, why has the GOP leadership refused 
to offset other spending such as rebuilding Iraq, Afghanistan or other 
operations in Iraq? The fact is this GOP effort is Robin Hood in reverse - 
robbing 
from the poor to give to the rich - and it ought to make GOP moderates, 
especially marginal members, very, very nervous." 
Americans for the Arts, a leading non-profit group dedicated to advancing the 
arts, added: "This is not the time to abandon a federal commitment to arts 
and culture" and advised supporters to raise the issue with their members of 
Congress. 
"Needless to say, cutting this funding would not even make a dent in the need 
for hurricane relief, and at the same time it would deprive the affected 
areas of much-needed help in rebuilding their vital cultural sectors," the group 

said in a statement. 



(Contact Bill Straub at StraubB(at)shns.com)
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