WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney pledged to cut spending for public television while campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, saying that Big Bird should be supported by advertisements and that the arts will need to get more private donations to stay afloat.
"We're not going to kill Big Bird," Romney said on Wednesday afternoon during a campaign stop in Clinton, Iowa. The former Massachusetts governor made the promise while touting his plans to drastically cut federal spending, under which he would slash $500 billion dollars a year from the budget by the end of his first term.
But while America's favorite seven-foot-tall bird would survive under Romney, he'll probably acquire some baggage. Romney stressed the need to cut even popular programs and singled out the National Endowment for the Arts and the Public Broadcasting Corporation as entities that would have to seek private funding in a Romney administration.
"Big Bird is going to have advertisements, all right?" said Romney. "And we're going to have endowments for the arts and humanities, but they're going to be paid for by private charity, not by taxpayers."
Romney justified his call for spending cuts in terms of stark realpolitik: "My test is, is a program so critical that it's worth borrowing money from China to pay for it?" But despite this new reasoning, his proposal is just the latest attempt in the long-running GOP drive to defund public broadcasting.
This followed a GOP attempt in the House in February to slash the CPB's funding in the continuing resolution.
"The GOP should be less preoccupied with silencing cookie monster and more focused on reviving the economy," replied Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) at the time. In 1995, she invited popular "Sesame Street" characters Bert and Ernie to testify on Capitol Hill when Republicans, under then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, tried to eliminate funding for public broadcasting.
The public broadcasting funds represent a minuscule portion of the federal budget. The Congressional Budget Office said this year that eliminating NPR's $5 million in federal funds from the budget would have "no effect."
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Recent polling shows Mitt Romney tied with Rick Santorum - or lagging behind - in Michigan, but his campaign is staying positive.
"We're going to win Michigan," Romney adviser Stuart Stevens said after the GOP debate in Arizona.
Romney has garnered endorsements from several of his home state's major newspapers, including The Detroit News, The Oakland Press and the Detroit Free Press.
But the Free Press endorsement was less than glowing:
For the past 12 months, Romney has been refashioning himself as something other than what his record suggests. He has made gestures toward economic and social radicalism, and eschewed the common sense of cooperative governing that made him a success in Massachusetts.
Romney was also dead wrong when he opposed government bailouts for the auto industry (Michigan's most vital economic engine) in late 2008. And he has since adopted a recalcitrant and, at times, revisionist defense of his position in the face of overwhelming evidence that the bailouts he opposed were necessary.
[...]
That's a mistake he will need to correct if he becomes the GOP nominee and hopes to even compete with President Barack Obama in the fall. But Romney, unlike the zealous Rick Santorum, the impulsive Newt Gingrich and the backward-thinking Ron Paul, is preferable to the rest of the field.
A Detroit News editor later complained that Romney had removed critical sections from the paper's endorsement. The campaign claimed that it did so to avoid copyright infringement, but at least one attorney had said that excuse doesn't pass muster.
But the Free Press endorsement was less than glowing:
For the past 12 months, Romney has been refashioning himself as something other than what his record suggests. He has made gestures toward economic and social radicalism, and eschewed the common sense of cooperative governing that made him a success in Massachusetts.
Romney was also dead wrong when he opposed government bailouts for the auto industry (Michigan's most vital economic engine) in late 2008. And he has since adopted a recalcitrant and, at times, revisionist defense of his position in the face of overwhelming evidence that the bailouts he opposed were necessary.
[...]
That's a mistake he will need to correct if he becomes the GOP nominee and hopes to even compete with President Barack Obama in the fall. But Romney, unlike the zealous Rick Santorum, the impulsive Newt Gingrich and the backward-thinking Ron Paul, is preferable to the rest of the field.
A Detroit News editor later complained that Romney had removed critical sections from the paper's endorsement. The campaign claimed that it did so to avoid copyright infringement, but at least one attorney had said that excuse doesn't pass muster.
Recent polling shows Mitt Romney tied with Rick Santorum - or lagging behind - in Michigan, but his campaign is staying positive.
"We're going to win Michigan," Romney adviser Stuart Stevens said after the GOP debate in Arizona.
Romney has garnered endorsements from several of his home state's major newspapers, including The Detroit News, The Oakland Press and the Detroit Free Press.
But the Free Press endorsement was less than glowing:
For the past 12 months, Romney has been refashioning himself as something other than what his record suggests. He has made gestures toward economic and social radicalism, and eschewed the common sense of cooperative governing that made him a success in Massachusetts.
Romney was also dead wrong when he opposed government bailouts for the auto industry (Michigan's most vital economic engine) in late 2008. And he has since adopted a recalcitrant and, at times, revisionist defense of his position in the face of overwhelming evidence that the bailouts he opposed were necessary.
[...]
That's a mistake he will need to correct if he becomes the GOP nominee and hopes to even compete with President Barack Obama in the fall. But Romney, unlike the zealous Rick Santorum, the impulsive Newt Gingrich and the backward-thinking Ron Paul, is preferable to the rest of the field.
A Detroit News editor later complained that Romney had removed critical sections from the paper's endorsement. The campaign claimed that it did so to avoid copyright infringement, but at least one attorney had said that excuse doesn't pass muster.
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney pledged to cut spending for public television while campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, saying that Big Bird should be supported by advertisements and that the arts will need t...
WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney pledged to cut spending for public television while campaigning in Iowa on Wednesday, saying that Big Bird should be supported by advertisements and that the arts will need t...
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Regardless of whether Mitt Romney wins the Iowa Republican caucus Tuesday, he has enjoyed a remarkably easy presidential race so far....
Mitt Romney's brazenly dishonest ad is far from the garden-variety truth stretching we're used to in political campaigns. It is so breathtakingly cynical it should cause us to question whether a candidate that would put it forth is fit for any public office -- let alone the presidency.
The Huffington Post Max Rosenthal First Posted: 12/28/11 05:48 PM ET Updated: 12/29/11 09:05 AM ET