I... am at a loss for words. 

No, they are just as rich as Disney, they need no help. That is the point, stop giving help to those who No longer need it.

There is a special place in my heart for Big Bird..

Big Bird is going to the slaughterhouse?  

I thought that PBS was mostly funded by private donations, like when they have concerts aired on PBS and they have people there to take calls/donations throughout the show.

This is a stupid thing to debate about...Killing big bird is such a horrible idea -_-

Pre-school already is not subsidized.  Studies show that kids with a pre-school education go much further than those who don't. 

PBS is the closest thing that a lot of kids get to an early education (it's unfortunate, but it's true), so yes, the government and "Viewers Like You" should continue to fund it. 

One of America's problems is most of us have no idea where our priorities ought to be. Not a fucking clue. We have farmers feeding their cows and pigs CANDY because corn is so high, but we still MUST turn it into ethanol. Private schools can do a MUCH BETTER job on thousands of dollars less per child, but the solution to that is throw even more money into the public schools. Money we do not have, I might add. Children lived, and some even became geniuses, for thousands of years without....Big Bird. (I think the real reason people might be upset over no more PBS is they will have one less option for babysitters for their kids. One that they sort of could tell themselves was a good one because it was "educational" whereas Spongebob may have quite the opposite affect.) The Federal Reserve is buying up everyone's mortgages with this new QE3 (because 1 and 2 were such GREAT successes), more people are on food stamps than ever in food stamp history, but by God, they won't let their Big Bird die! Let's all make sure that stays running, this is what is important to us. 

Romney ruffled a lot of feathers with that statement. it led to the highest number of tweets over a political issue ever. at one point tweets came in at 17,000/minute. yes that's seventeen thousand a minute in case someone understandably thinks i made a typo. Romney also said his plan will not cut any taxes...a big change from what he's been promising all year, a 20% tax cut across the board. as of a few hours ago fact-checkers concluded Romney gave misleading statements or told out and out lies 28 times during last night's debate. even his own campaign walked back his declaration that under his healthcare plan people with preexisting conditions will be able to have healthcare insurance. a Romney spokesperson said Romney didn't mean to say that. today Romney said he was wrong when he told rich donors 47% of Americans don't take responsibility for their own lives and live off the government. the Big Bird fallout is funny but also telling. Sesame Street has not only served as an inexpensive and fun way for preschoolers to learn. Big Bird is a national icon. during WWII an adviser to Winston Churchill advised the Prime Minister he needed to cut funding to Britain's cultural institutions to further fund the war. Churchill answered, "Then what are we fighting for?" 

Sesame Street is owned the the Children's Television Workshop and does well with its merchandise sales.  Public broadcasting may not have commercials but the extended underwriter acknowledgements (with video) seem like the same difference.http://bit.ly/HvJQE9.  

If Uncle Sugar's contribution is such a de minimus portion of public broadcasting budgets, then why the howls at the thought of cutting it--it's social welfare for socialites and seaboard types. 

#romneyryan2012 was wise to cite PBS for potential cuts as it solidified the conservative base as well as giving low-information voters a superfluous federal program which should be evaluated if it is worth borrowing our grandchildren's inheritance for a loan from China in order to fund it.

It the 1960s, when there were few broadcast choices it made sense to give seed money and support public broadcasting.  Now Bruce Springsteen can kvetch "There's 57 channels and there's nothing on"  still, taxpayer suckers have to pick up the bill http://goo.gl/ghRFH

They don't fund it. But it does say something that Romney went out of his way to mention a tiny part of the U.S. budget that goes to educational programming. Gotta stop that big bad education it's evil. 

Look to the Constitution for the answer.  I am no Romney fan (no Obama fan either) but on this I agree.  The gov't has no business funding things like Sesame Street when we can't afford to operate essential gov't programs on a balanced budget.