Romney Plans to Cut PBS, Welfare, Amtrak and the Arts

I'm speechless. To me, whenever the Republicans try to cut PBS it seems like an attack on children in particular. These types of cuts have been going on since the Nixon years and I can't figure out how any of it helps most Americans, except making things more difficult or less interesting. Also it puts the burden back on the states, especially with PBS, which most people love.

And as far as sending housing and food stamps back to the states, and cutting funding for Amtrak . . . um . . . that would make Romney a very unpopular president, if he was ever going to be president, which I doubt.

Stupid is as stupid does.

From Huffington Post

Romney identified subsidies for Amtrak, PBS, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities as things he would eliminate. The government spends $444 million a year on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (the parent organization of PBS); Amtrak received $1.56 billion in federal funding in 2010, with $1.3 billion in stimulus funds; while the National Endowment of the Arts lists the current level of federal funding at approximately $146 million.

Romney said he would block grant Medicaid and send programs like housing vouchers and food stamps back to the states. This, he argued, would save the federal government "approximately $100 billion a year within four years" (the House GOP budget claims to save $771 billion over 10 years). It would also mean dramatic cuts to each of these programs, as states are already dealing with major budget shortfalls.

. . . In sum, Romney's plan would put off entitlement reforms for 10 years, and rules out reductions in defense spending and major changes to the current tax code, while promising to bring federal spending below 20 percent of GDP by 2016. The Washington Post's Ezra Klein argues this is either fantasy mathematics, or Romney would essentially have to cut every single federal program by 40 percent.

Boehner and Cantor tried this a few years back, and got slammed for it. I hope the same thing happens to Romney and Ryan.


I wish Mr. Rogers were still around, but here he is pleading the case for Public TV back in 1969. Everyone should go and like this video, repost it, email and Facebook it. Mitt is as clueless as the guy interviewing Mr. Rogers who has never seen his show. Romney's handlers just told him that if they cut PBS they can have a war with Iran someday, and that's all his budget is about.