America in 2012 faces big problems: A moribund economy, the national debt totally out of control, terrorist attacks on our soil at our embassies around the world, a looming budget battle that may cripple our national defense, and on and on. Instead of talking about any of that, the Obama campaign is out with a laughable ad castigating Mitt Romney for saying he would cut the federal subsidy to PBS.
Moe Lane chuckles. Even Politico pans.
Do you know what the real message of Obama’s Big Bird ad is?
That no one anywhere in the Obama campaign is serious about anything. They’re not serious about the budget or any of the problems we face.
If we can’t even discuss the possibility of cutting something as small as the PBS subsidy in a time of hundreds of TV channels available 24/7 by cable or satellite, then we can’t really discuss cutting the federal subsidy to anything. Well, except defense. Democrats are consistent about that one — even when the threats to America are on the rise, they’ll cut the military’s capability.
But Big Bird? A dude in a bird suit is literally more sacred than our religious freedom to Team Obama.
More: Mark Steyn –
Give it a week or so, and, in a grand harmonic convergence of Democrat talking points, Big Bird will be dating Sandra Fluke.
More: [VIDEOS] Mitt Gets Real While Obama Compares Elmo to OJ in the White Suburban
They’ve handed Romney a perfect talking point. Jon Stewart did a terribly long segment on how tiny the funding of PBS and Big Bird was compared to the deficit. But Romney, who’s been involved in more than one turnaround of an enterprise going bankrupt, simply has to point out, you save $40 million here, $40 million there and next thing you know you are talking about real (government spending) money. Not to mention Obama being unwilling to talk about breaking the plate of a government dependent who is already banking big money through merchandising.
40 mill here 40 mill there – can you get that up to 5 trillion? HELLO??????
Can you get there without being willing to cut anything? The journey of 1000 miles begins with one step. One cut at a time friend, one cut at a time.
There are literally thousands of line items in the federal budget, if not tens of thousands. Many of them can and should be eliminated completely. Others can be reduced. You have to start somewhere.
The big money comes from doing away with baseline budgeting. Currently, every budget line item is automatically projected to get an increase each year, often on the order of 8%. Suppose their budget was $100 million this year, then next year they’ll expect to get $108 million. If they get anything less (say $107 million), they complain that their budget was cut. Instead, they should go into the next fiscal year having to justify their existence. Their budget should be zero unless Congress specifically allocates them additional funding.
There is a reason why the Senate has not passed a budget in over 3 years. The last budget they passed included the $800 billion “stimulus” bill. Ever since, government has been funded with a series of continuing resolutions based on that last budget. You could cut trillions out of the budget by simply rolling it back to FY 2008. That would cut the majority of the deficit in one fell swoop and over 10 year cut more than $5 trillion from government spending.
Larry3:
Jimmah Carter’s governorship and his 1976 presidential campaign featured “Zero-Based Budgeting” but as Prez he never did anything about it.
The new Republican ad:
Wild-eyed Obamite: “40 mill here 40 mill there – can you get that up to 5 trillion? HELLO??????”
Shocked Suburbanite: “Five…trillion? Obama is planning to run a five trillion dollar deficit in his next term?”
Voice-over: “Romney and Ryan have a plan…to reduce the deficit. Their opponents have a plan…to destroy what’s left of the economy. Vote Romney/Ryan in November!”
$40 Million is somewhat trivial compared to $5 Trillion. It may take time and effort, but you can save $100 by saving 1¢ at a time. At least it would be a cut, even if tiny compared to the budget overruns and debt.
The size of the funds is not even the point. All of the children shows on PBS could easily go on without any funding from outside sources. Barney, Teletubbies, Elmo, Blue’s Clues, whathaveyou, make billions through merchandise sales. The truth to be gleened from this attempted hullabaloo is that the O administration is completely unserious. The main talent of Obama’s campaining is to get people in a childlike mindset of ire.
What’s hilarious is that Sesame Street just released a statement asking the Obama campaign to take down the ad, since they did not authorize the ad and do not engage in partisan politics or election campaigns. This after the mainstream liberal networks all criticized the ad.
It really is quite hilarious to watch the campaigner-in-chief’s campaign unravel in such spectacular fashion…lol
All it should take is pointing out that Big Bird is in the top 2% of earners. The networks should be in a drooling war to pick up a syndication contract and vastly improve their morning offerings and advertising capacity…. theirs only so many hours of the Today show that people are willing to sit through.
I dunno, looks like it pretty adeptly puts Romney in the company of some pretty bad people.
However, most of the swing voters don’t know who they are, and don’t care. Big Bird, they at least know.
Gov. Romney’s response was pitch-perfect and head-and-shoulders above the maturity level of the Obama campaign. They released the statement:
Then-Candidate Barack Obama, In 2008: “If You Don’t Have A Record To Run On, Then You Paint Your Opponent As Someone People Should Run From. You Make A Big Election About Small Things.” (Senator Barack Obama, Acceptance Speech, Democratic National Convention, Denver, CO, 8/28/08)
Now THAT’S how to roll!
The defense of Big Bird does play to Obama’s audience, but it is really insulting to anyone who has to pay taxes.
Anyone in the private sector knows that when you have to cut, everything must be on the table. Only in government would a 40 year old institution, that could be spun off to be it’s own independent channel, and maybe even make money, has to be retained just like the Holy Grail.
You don’t think there would be a collossal bidding war for “The Sesame Street Channel?”
This is the Washington Monument syndrome on steroids. The first dollar cut of government spending is always the tired old trope of “cutting teachers, police, and firemen – think about the Children!”
i’m not sure, but it seems to me that using big bird, when he is in part paid for by the government, would violate some campaign law. of course, it wouldn’t matter to the dems or the msm, but surely there is a rnc lawyer who could raise a ruckus.
– is not a DoDo and will survive transition to cable.
– appropriate OFA recycled a silly saying from the Nineties.
PBS is a great argument for Romney because it shows that because government subsidies never end they must be avoided at all costs. Today Big Bird feasts at the taxpayer table, tomorrow it will be Solyndra’s Children. While they’re eating the “anti-competition stew” the rest of the world innovates and improves. The only compelling reason to subsidize PBS is that it shields the network from viewer criticism and enables it to freely propagandize. I rather doubt that the Founders considered indoctrination the proper exercise of Federal Power.
apparently obama approved this message, but sesame street workshop didn’t. according to hotair.com a cease-and-desist requesst has been issued.
You’re right, Sesame Street has asked the obama camp to pull the ad. My goodness, o’s camp is so desperate I’m curious what inane, sophomoric trick they will try next. BTW, it surprised me that AARP has asked the obama camp to, “don’t call us, we’ll call you”. Could it be karma?
What a colossal joke! I don’t know about nationally, but in the Washington, DC, viewing area the local PBS channel has a time slot called “WETA UK” which runs British, usually BBC, mysteries and other drama shows. So we have trans-Atlantic tax payers subsidizing local TV. Priceless!!
Big Bird says sorry! I feel bad! Now that he knows the facts… http://i.imgur.com/OGQ06.jpg
Apparently, Sesame St. has asked the Dems to take down the ad. Big Bird disapproves of this message.
Big Bird is worth more $$ than Mitt Romney in merchandizing and syndication. Here’s Obama standing with the fat cats over the taxpayer, yet again.
Also, I’ll bet every single ad producer involved in this ad failed that section of the SAT that states “if a is to b, then c is to ….” They connect the strangest dots. Soptic’s wife dies and it’s Romney’s fault, for example. This is grasping at straws hoping strawmen form. Romney is not blaming Big Bird for anything on wall street, just pointing out that the rich and successful like Big Bird don’t need us to borrow money from China to support him.
It will appeal to the eighteen year-olds that think O needs a TOTUS to make the debates fair, however.
SO how come PBS can’t get advertising dollars for Sesame street and fund this show, like so many other free market shows that are successful do.
Could it be that they didn’t think about marketing and all the rights to the product lines that spin off from such a show?
Could it be that they are so entrenched in government largesse that they can’t see how much better this product does in the free maket?
And could this hoopla, be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, because why would anyone subsidize a show that could do so much better if in the private hands.
Actually, they think about it a great deal and have a team of lawyers and accountants that track the very fine lines between their for profit and non-profit arms. They also know to the dollar what the major networks will bid to land Sesame Street into their morning line ups to boost their ad dollars. They’ve known for years that going main stream was a when, not an if – and they’ve got a plan.
I saw a great comment last week: “Big Bird seen visiting with Bain Capital about a new IPO”
Our boy President strikes again. Never mind that an ambassador has been killed on foreign soil; saving NPR is first priority.
It’s almost Thanksgiving. Time to stuff Big Bird and roast. The left can eat crow.
Maybe Obama can take over the new Big Bird show after he losses this job he has. PBS does not need government money, they make enough on their own. The government money is used to make political hidden comments about green, and the poor. If your poor how do you own a TV. Oh, yes along with the Obamaphone thier might be an ObamaTV.
Big Bird & Co. have been plucking the taxpayers for years. It’s time to put PBS on a TV dinner plate by itself and see if it can survive (with the millions it brings in, I don’t see how it can’t).
While the company behind Sesame Street may be nonprofit, the revenue from merchandising must be very impressive. They would probably be picked up by anther network in a heartbeat.
The very successful merchandising of these programs proves they they could succeed without government help. In fact, I maintain the the successful elements of these programs is entirely due to successful merchandising in the private sector.
The Obamites must REALLY be desperate! The idea of Big Bird & company was to get children to watch something on TV that would hold their attention while they learned the alphabet and numbers.
My generation didn’t have public television or Big Bird but produced our share of doctors, lawyers, engineers, computer programmers and other skilled, educated Americans. My father taught me to read by age four. When I was seven, my parents bought the World Book Encyclopedia. I read it cover to cover and learned a lot!
It’s up to parents to civilize and educate their children. And teach morals, too. Big Bird does not and cannot do the later…and that’s rerally what’s most important!
Now I know Romney is going to win. With all the problems we’re facing today, if this is the best the Obama campaign can come up with, they’re finished. I still have not heard one single idea that Obama has for the future, let alone what he plans on actually doing if he’s (God forbid) re-elected. Obama’s only reason for re-election is that he’s not Romney and he will spend even more money bringing us to bankruptcy a lot faster. Some campaign platform. It’s a wonder Obama’s poll numbers aren’t in the low 30s.
Well it does seem that the make-believe death of a make-believe character is far more upsetting to them than the real death of a real ambassador.
Update: Big Bird gives Obama the bird. Sesame Street requests that the Democrat ad be pulled.
Childrens Television Workshop made $281 million during the Obama term. The President of CTW earns $1 million per year. Romney just needs to say “I’m not worried about Big Bird, she makes more money than I do”.
BTW, PBS collects a half a billion per year from taxpayers, that’s significant.
In an era with hundreds of TV channels, the idea that we need a government sponsored network is absurd. Likewise, there is no rational justification for subsidizies to National Public Radio. The closest thing to the truth is that PBS and NPR provide Democrats with media outlets that don’t have to compete in the free market. From reports I’ve read, their salaries are grossly inflated compared to their counterparts in private sector media outlets.
David Mamet got it right; PBS = National Palestinian Radio.
Anyone else feel like this add endorses Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy capability?
“…will seek out our enemies, no matter where they nest.”
That sounds like a guy that would’ve gotten Bin Laden 2 months sooner.
“That no one anywhere in the Obama campaign is serious about anything.”
Dems/Libs/Progs are perpetual juveniles, longing for when mommy and daddy did everything for them, including suckling and wiping their cute little bottoms, paid for everything, permitted all manner of abusive rantings with a chuckle and wink, and still loved them to distraction. As a consequence, they are rarely serious about anything except their bodily functions, which they obsess over.
Obama’s entire approach to everything but dealing with opponents lives in a miasma of puerile unseriousness.
Isn’t PBS a non-profit ? Doesn’t federal law bar tax-exempt organizations from donating money to a politician’s campaign or endorsing a candidate? Regardless of their alignment of interests, Childrens Television Workshop has to give a give a cease and desist – or risk their tax exempt status. I find it bizarre that the Obama campaign wouldn’t know that non profits can’t support candidates already. Wouldn’t the likely scenario be that they knew it was wrong and contemptuously ran the add anyway?
Sesame Workshop Response to Campaign Ads:Cease and desist
Sesame Workshop is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and we do not endorse candidates or participate in political campaigns. We have approved no campaign ads, and as is our general practice, have requested that the ad be taken down.
No permission!
Screw Sesame Street!
Doh!bama might as well go full-on Romper Room [Dope & Deranged]:
“I see Hispanics and Blacks and Women and gays…
I see teachers and unions and green jobs galore…
I see Pedos and preachers and Muslims each day
Tee for me, none for you, you middle class bore…”
“Hello, Timmy, you’re a little too white for me.
Hell, Maria & Jamal, you’re alright I see,
For the color of your skin, is how you get in
After all, one and all, that’s how Marxists win.”
NPR played an Obama rally speech this morning. It was about Big Bird, Elmo, and Ernie driving a white Suburban and escaping to Mexico.
He continues to talk down to his audience in his pseudo-folksey sort of way. Because the audience laughs, he may think that he is popular.
Ozero:
“We care about Sesame Street, we don’t give a F* about Main Street”
Big Bird knows better:
http://acutemania.net/big-bird-confronts-michelle-obama-on-sesame-street/
“That no one anywhere in the Obama campaign is serious about anything. They’re not serious about the budget or any of the problems we face.”
That is self evident to anyone with a peppercorns worth of critical thinking skills, the useful idiots, kool-aiders and hopium pipe addicts will remain blind to the truth until they are shipped off to FEMA camps (galugs) after every cent of their 401k has been confiscated to pay off Obama’s cronies.
This is a core reason why the United States is going down the plughole, “Without leadership the people perish.”
NO WE CAN’T is Obama’s real theme.
And lest we forget my fellow Americans, that the man underneath the
Big Bird costume, Mr. Carroll Spinney, earns $314,000 a year, some of
which is paid for with money borrowed from China.
So maybe, just maybe, Mr. Romney is correct.