tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895867.post3300794982320717746..comments2024-02-27T04:20:08.770-05:00Comments on A Big Fat Slob: Petition to Stop Bush Cuts in Funding for NPR & PBSA Big Fat Slobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12643815117960627121noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895867.post-34607478666419677892007-02-15T21:01:00.000-05:002007-02-15T21:01:00.000-05:00Is it really a 25% cut or is this an instance of b...Is it really a 25% cut or is this an instance of baseline budgeting deception?<BR/><BR/>It'll be interesting to see if the number is legitimate or not. <BR/><BR/>For example, in the past if an organization had a reduction in the rate of growth it gets reported as cuts.<BR/><BR/>As an example, if an organization has $75m budget one year and a projected budget of $100 which gets reduced to an $80m budget the media will report it as a 20% cut even though the actual budget grew.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25895867.post-84515343225449336982007-02-13T15:14:00.000-05:002007-02-13T15:14:00.000-05:00Here is the text of the petition:"Congress must sa...Here is the text of the petition:<BR/><BR/>"Congress must save NPR and PBS once and for all. Congress should guarantee permanent funding and independence from partisan meddling." <BR/><BR/>I like public broadcasting. I've both donated and signed past petitions to prevent defunding of public broadcasting. But this petition is different.<BR/><BR/>What does "once and for all" mean? Are they suggesting a constitutional amendment?<BR/><BR/>And what is the difference between "partisan meddling" and, uh, submitting budget bills and voting on them?<BR/><BR/>There was another petition posted at the same URL from Nov 2005 to May 2006 (before the election), but it was in opposition to a particular proposal, and didn't call for establishing any permanent level of funding that couldn't be altered by future lawmakers.<BR/><BR/>Have a look at that previous petition on the wayback machine:<BR/><BR/>http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://civic.moveon.org/publicbroadcasting/<BR/><BR/>Although superficially similar, this new petition is significantly different. It calls for permanent funding that cannot be rescinded, regardless of how NPR/PBS may change in the future. Do we really want to establish a publicly-funded institution that is accountable to no one?<BR/><BR/>The "once and for all" wish is an understandable one, but is bad for democracy. And it's a lazy wish.John F.https://www.blogger.com/profile/18201235087387117146noreply@blogger.com