Representative Doug Lamborn, R, CO, has introduced a pair of bills to eliminate the federal tax dollars that fund the budgets of National Public Radio (NPR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Upon the filing of H.R. 726 and H.R. 727, Lamborn said congressional Republicans need to prove they take fiscal responsibility seriously.
“American taxpayers do not want their hard-earned dollars funding superfluous government programs just because that is the way things have always been done,” Lamborn wrote on his congressional webpage.
The Coloradan introduced the bills to “permanently defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio. CPB received $445 million during Fiscal Year 2016, and this money could be put to better use rebuilding our military and enhancing our national security.”
Lamborn insisted that with a $20 trillion national debt, cuts must be made; since these broadcasting services have been able to pick up funding from private sources in the past, cutting the tax dollars flowing into their coffers now is a good start at reducing government spending.
Rep. Lamborn, though, took pains to say that this proposal isn’t about the content aired by either of these broadcasting services.
“This is not about content, as CBP certainly airs some quality programs,” he wrote, “the point is that it is perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet and not on the financial shoulders of the American taxpayers. ”
Lamborn noted that the savings to the taxpayer could reach upwards to $500 million annually.
NPR features a webpage that breaks down its expenditures, but a recent assessment found that NPR receives about about 40 percent of its $166 million budget from the federal government, or about $66 million from taxpayers annually.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.”
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