Yes, there are some good shows on Public Broadcasting. I grew up watching Big Bird and Mr Rogers...now watch Kentucky Afield. I'd hate to see them off the air, but my opinions have changed lately...if it's my tax dollars keeping them afloat (or money that the US Government has to borrow from Communist China), I'd rather feed the homeless disabled hungry, help some kid and his mother stop having to live in their car, repair a bridge that's a piece of crap, or fix a sewer system that's 75 years old with that money.

If PBS can't operate without government funding, then they can find more donors or learn how to sell advertising like the rest of the television world has to do to keep the lights on.

I love how their statement the other day was that "Cutting Federal Funding for PBS would have devastating consequences for the children of America and have no impact on the deficit." I guess it's the educational programming from PBS that is causing our children to be such elite world-beaters when it comes to math, science, and intelligence. Oh, wait a minute....they aren't?

In the list of things that have to go in order to balance the budget...do you prioritize federal funding for Big Bird over improvements to schools, college scholarship programs, or work study programs?

It's a checkbook. Something that all of us have to sit down and balance every month...yet the government can't do it. Why? Because nobody is willing to give up anything. We don't have the money, but we want it all anyway. Just raise the debt ceiling and put it on the plastic baby.

And of course, cutting subsidy for PBS alone won't have a material impact on the deficit...but the collective action of being smarter with our spending will. That's just part of it. It's like a kid wanting a $5 toy at the grocery store and you tell them no. "But Dad, it's just $5...what's $5 matter on your $100 grocery bill?" It's the nickels and dimes that add up to the dollars that break you, if you don't stay within a budget.