Big Bird must learn to fly on his own

The evidence is overwhelming and the video is condemning. NPR does not need taxpayer dollars. In the undercover video, Ron Schiller admits that it would be better off without federal funding. There is no need for further debate. Remove NPR from the federal budget and be done with it.

For this fiscal year, Congress appropriated $430 million for CPB, NPR’s parent organization. In the next fiscal year that amount is set to climb another $15 million. At a time when our federal debt is increasing by $54,373 every second, and the government is borrowing more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends, we must cut all nonessential government spending.

If that money stayed in the private sector, instead of being taxed away or borrowed by government, investors could create the private sector jobs Americans want. We can save a program, or we can save our country.

In that same undercover video, Schiller accuses Tea Party members of hijacking the Republican Party with a racist agenda. This is a disturbing and deeply offensive accusation coming from anyone, but especially coming from the vice president of a supposedly unbiased news outlet. However, it’s not NPR’s liberal bias that offends me as much as the fact that my tax dollars are funding it.

Within NPR, some bizarrely claim that efforts to cut federal funding are aimed at controlling and influencing the editorial content of NPR. Nothing could be further from the truth. I believe removing federal funding from NPR would give it more, not less, editorial freedom than it currently enjoys.We cannot ignore the simple fact that America can no longer afford to spend taxpayer dollars on nonessential government programs. It’s time for Big Bird to earn his wings and learn to fly on his own.

Rep. Doug Lamborn is sponsoring H.R. 68, a bill aimed at eliminating all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting beginning in 2013, and H.R. 69, a bill more narrowly aimed at restricting federal funds for National Public Radio.