Rep. Doug Lamborn: Kill Sesame Street

Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) has proposed legislation that will end federal funding for PBS. Because times are too tough to pay for Sesame Street.

Lamborn says that with increased government deficits, funding for programs like Sesame Street, for example, is not a priority. "Programs that are of good quality, people are going to support," he argues. "Why should taxpayers, when we're running trillion-dollar annual deficits, have to pay for something like this that can pay for itself?" It is estimated the taxpayer cost to fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2010 will equal $420 million. Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, concurs with Lamborn's sentiment. "This is a total luxury in the sense that this is not something people can't get other places," says Wilson. "And clearly, there isn't enough of a market for it. If there were, it wouldn't need government taxpayer money to pay its salaries and pay for its overhead."

PBS gets 15-20 percent of its total budget from the federal government.