February 06, 2017 03:40 PM UTC

Doug Lamborn's War on Big Bird Resumes Under Trump

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• by: Colorado Pols

Denver7’s Blair Miller reports, the member of Congress perhaps best known for trying to switch the names of Mt. Democrat and Republican Mountain as a Colorado state senator is back to his other cause célèbre–killing off public television:

Colorado Congressman Doug Lamborn introduced two resolutions this week that would strip hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that he says could be better spent on the U.S. military…

Lamborn pointed to a multi-trillion dollar national debt and his perceived need to go to work “rebuilding our military and enhancing our national security” as reasons for again sponsoring such a resolution.

“Republicans and the new Administration need to demonstrate that we take our 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 said in a statement.

He added that the plan wasn’t about the quality of the broadcasters’ programming.

Public television is an easy whipping boy for Republicans looking to demonize “wasteful government spending,” but supporters argue it’s a (comparatively speaking) very small and worthwhile expense. The education and cultural programming on PBS is held to a higher standard than ordinary entertainment fare–and with the possible exception of pledge drive time, it’s hard to find a cross word about PBS from anybody. PBS survived previous Lamborn-instigated attempts to cut off its funding under President Barack Obama, but under the new administration it’s anybody’s guess.

Perhaps we’ve arrived at a time in history when everything you need to know can be found on reruns of The Apprentice?