An Overdue Idea: Defunding NPR

In the wake of NPR's hypocrisy in firing Juan Williams while keeping Nina Totenberg on the payroll, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) have said they intend to introduce legislation to stop government funding of NPR. While I agree with the idea of defunding NPR, PBS, etc. it is a shame that it will correctly appear to just be done in response to the Williams firing. Is funding a radio station a proper government function? NO! Of course not. Whether Juan Williams is being paid by NPR or not should have no bearing on whether taxpayer monies should be used in that manner. Whenever conservatives attempt to put NPR, PBS, NEA, and other wasteful government spending on the chopping block some minimize it as just being a drop in the bucket compared to other spending such as defense or entitlement spending. That is a BS answer. All wasteful government spending needs to be eliminated regardless of its size. If you watch your pennies the dollars will take care of themselves.

An Important Question to Ask Before Voting for a Republican

While I'm opposed to most of the policies of the current party in power, don't assume all Republicans are necessarily a big improvement. Some will pay lip service to being concerned about spending and then will move to DC and then play along to get along. One question to ask to get some insight into the candidate is to ask them whether they will listen to former senator Trent Lott (lobbyist on behalf of the ruling/spending class) or Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). Here is an article to get a sense of what Lott thinks of the Tea Party movement.

Any possible shred of doubt remaining in anybody's mind about former Senate GOP leader Trent Lott's true allegiance have now been definitively removed: Lott is a paid tool of the Washington Establishment who hates the Tea Party and all other insurgents who have had it with politics-as-usual.

"We don't need a lot of Jim DeMint disciples. As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them," Lott told The Washington Post in an incredibly revealing story.

Sen. Jim DeMint, of course, is the South Carolina conservative Republican who last year formed the Senate Conservatives Fund to back precisely the kind of insurgent conservative Senate candidates most feared by the Lotts of the world. . . . . It's the same old story that such GOPers want the votes of "the base" but they don't want to do what the Tea Partiers and a clear majority of their fellow Americans, want them to do.

Several of the Republican senators are of Lott's ilk and not much better than the Democrats. John McCain and Lindsey Graham among others will talk the talk every few years when concerned about reelection. However, once safely back in DC they go back to thinking they know better than the rubes who voted for them.