Bob McDonnell Cuts Like A Knife Through The State Budget

The things that warm the cold, cold cockles of my heart.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has used a powerful executive tool to further his goal of phasing out state funding for public broadcasting.

After two efforts to get legislators to cut more funding than they would agree to, the governor moved closer to his objective Tuesday when he signed the amended 2012 budget and included one line-item veto that will result in 25 percent fewer dollars for educational programing for public radio and TV stations.

Given that the cuts make up a very small percentage of the balanced budget legislators had already approved, the governor’s veto is more symbolic of his ideology than of his budget concerns.

“In today’s free market, with hundreds of radio and television programs, government should not be subsidizing one particular group of stations,” Mr. McDonnell said.

Cutting funding for public broadcasting is one of those issues that liberals seem to carry two very different and opposing ideas in their little head at the same time. On one hand, public funding is a small percentage for NPR and PBS so it doesn't make much of a difference. But yet cutting that same funding is akin to burning the first amendment and the death knell for free speech.

Besides, it's only the state budget. Public broadcasting will still go on with help from federal funding and "Viewers like you". They can handle a few extra days of fund-raising to make up the difference.

Again, this is about funding. Which political party will the editors and producers favor in their story? The party who would budget them more money or the party threatening to cut the purse strings?