Republicans favor budget cuts to public radio, TV

House Republicans announced their plans to reduce the deficit last Friday — and the cuts they proposed cut precisely down party lines.

One of the cuts would eliminate the funding for public television and radio completely. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is just one of the many places House Republicans are targeting under their guise of trimming the budget responsibly.

Eliminating the CPB completely would reduce government spending by $531 million, according to the Associated Press. Of the $60 billion that House Republicans are trying to cut, the CPB represents less than 1 percent of the total goal.

The funding that the CPB receives was originally created by Congress in 1967. Since its creation the CPB has been vital to public communication and education throughout the country.

The CPB “helps support the operations of more than 1,100 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services,” according to the CPB website.

The CPB represents the government’s investment in making sure that all Americans have access to public radio and television, even in the most rural of areas. The proposal to eliminate the CPB is so unreasonable that it is hard to see why cutting it would be proposed if not for partisan motivations.

Eliminating CPB funding would affect programs like the Public Broadcasting Station, National Public Radio, KUHF and other local radio and television programs that many people rely on for information on a daily basis. The cuts would have a disproportionate affect on rural stations and programs that have fewer methods of funding.

The House Republicans are making it clear that they’re not interested in meaningful solutions — and are risking the channels of communcation for many Americans.