After Mitt Romney's comments at the first presidential debate about defunding PBS—despite being fond of debate moderator Jim Lehrer and Big Bird—many have questioned the prudence of cutting off the roughly $71 million that PBS receives annually from the federal government.
PBS, home of Big Bird's Sesame Street and previously Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, has been threatened with the removal of funds before. In 1969 when the Nixon administration proposed defunding the public broadcasting system, Fred Rogers testified before a Senate subcommittee defending the importance and the necessity of its federal funding.
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