Sunflower State News

U.S. Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) appeared on Fox Business’ The Bottom Line to discuss the Senate's approval of the President’s rescissions package and the proposed cuts to funding for NPR and PBS. During his interview with David Webb and Dagen McDowell, Marshall highlighted concerns about national debt and government spending priorities.

Marshall explained the reasoning behind reducing funds for public broadcasting: “That’s just fine with me, David. The backdrop of this is $37 trillion of national debt. We’re spending $7 trillion here, only taking in $5 trillion. We’ve got a budget issue amongst us. And here we’re spending a billion dollars on public television. Look, I don’t wish them any ill will. They certainly are a left-leaning organization to be polite about it, but here you’re using taxpayer money to run an advertisement against a politician, right?

“So anyway, we just thought… It’s not the best use of money, let’s put it that way. If I had the choice between spending a billion dollars on public radio, public television, versus rural hospitals, I’m going to pick rural hospitals.”

Marshall suggested alternative uses for the savings from these cuts: “So I think the big picture, I would ask Americans is, if the President identifies waste, fraud, or abuse, what [do] you expect him to do with it? Well, I think we would expect him to be frugal and get rid of that. So, that’s exactly what we did here. We trimmed back. It’s only $9 billion, it’s only $9 billion, but again, that could help keep rural hospitals open. Maybe we could have more food. There’s lots of other things, better things to do with $9 billion, including paying off the national debt, which is the biggest long-term threat our grandchildren will ever face.”

Addressing claims regarding severe weather coverage by public broadcasters in areas like Kansas’ Tornado Alley, Marshall said: “Yeah, once upon a time there was probably a place for government funding. But when you’re in Kansas, we’re in Tornado Alley. And when there’s a tornado system coming towards you heavy severe thunderstorms you’re going to tune to a local TV station with the local meteorologist with the radar. And then if you’re asleep you have a special warning system. I don’t know anyone that turns to public broadcasting during these types of emergencies. That’s just a fallacy out there. I think there are plenty of other alternatives to your point; we would probably go to a radio station but most likely we want a local television with a locally trained meteorologist.”

Marshall also commented on his perception of political bias within public broadcasting: “So they’re getting out a leftist message; these public broadcasts have been turned into another tool of the leftist socialists. That’s all they become significantly left. Yes they’ve got some good programs but we don’t want to use government funding for such a program as this; there are better things to do with the money.”

The Senate's passage of this rescissions package comes amid ongoing debate over federal budget allocations and efforts aimed at reducing overall government expenditures.