Don’t listen to them, Barack! Keep going with it.
Does Mitt Romney want to ‘kill’ Big Bird? — WaPo Fact Checker
“During the debates, Mitt Romney told America how he plans to pay for those tax cuts he wants to give America’s wealthiest tax payers… by killing Big Bird! We’ve got to stop this guy. Please donate what you can.”
As part of a fundraising appeal, the Obama campaign has claimed that Mitt Romney wants to kill Big Bird in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich. “Save Big Bird! Vote Democratic,” the Obama Web site declares.
This appeal comes as the Obama campaign also launched a satirical ad highlighting Romney’s mention of the Sesame Street character during the first presidential debate. “Mitt Romney knows it’s not Wall Street you have to worry about, it’s Sesame Street,” the ad intones. […]
“I like PBS. I love Big Bird. Actually, I like you, too,” Romney said to debate moderator Jim Lehrer, the host of PBS’s “NewsHour.” “But I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.”
If Obama had been a bit more on his game during the debate, he could have noted that repealing Obamacare would add a bit to the deficit, at least in its first 10 years. He also could have noted that funding for Public Broadcasting amounts to a mere pittance of the federal budget — some $445 million out of $3.8 trillion. That’s a little over 1/10,000 of the budget, or a mere rounding error.
Of course, deficit cutting has to start somewhere, but the former Massachusetts governor might have been more specific about what areas he wants to cut besides two items — the health care law and PBS funding — that excite the Republican base.
Similarly, it is just as silly for the Obama campaign to claim that Romney would use this minor bit of funding to help pay for tax cuts (After all, Romney denies his tax plan even is aimed at benefiting the wealthiest Americans.)
But in any case, Romney clearly said that he loves Big Bird, not that he wants to kill it. And even if he eliminated public funding for PBS, how would that affect Sesame Street, where Big Bird resides?
Not much. The 2009 financial disclosure from Sesame Workshop, the company that produces the program, shows that just $7.9 million came from government grants out of $130 million in total revenue, or about 6 percent.
The Pinocchio Test
How did “I love Big Bird” turn into “kill Big Bird”? Only through a spin machine going on hyper drive.
Romney may have been off base in suggesting PBS funding has much to do with the deficit, but that’s no excuse for the Obama campaign to declare that means the demise of a popular children’s character. According to the financials of Sesame Workshop, Big Bird should do just fine, with or without public funding.
