Defunding a system that sends emergency alerts to rural areas just after a flash flood killed a whole bunch of people in a rural area who didn't get alerted in time is...certainly something.
Several decades ago I was with a team that started a community radio station in West Virginia with sponsors, mostly volunteers, and some funding from corporation for public broadcasting. We expanded a few years later to two counties in neighboring Virginia. Total population of our three counties is probably about 20,000. Local religious programming is part of the mix, along with local news, sports, programming including our traditional music, and valued by our elderly.Our teens once ran a contemporary Christian music program. When we have had devastating floods, the radio stations coordinated response. Emergency warnings on weather, local news that the major population centers further away do not cover. Our networked stations bring our community together. Corporate and private donors and sponsors and volunteer DJ's cover a lot of the expense. But our sparsely-populated area cannot cover all the expenses. We are grateful for the federal help. Now on the chopping block by this bill. Why?
Scots WhaHae
“The measure cuts $9.4 billion in funding provided by the State Department…”
Correction: The State Department doesn’t have any funding to provide. Not $1. All funds *distributed* by USSD are “provided” by we the people… like me.
“The government” doesn’t “have” any money.
Spend less. Tax less. Bye Bye CPB!
Once you pay the taxes that are required to live in this society, it's no longer your money. This is pretty basic stuff. Unless what Jesus meant to say was "Don't render anything unto Caesar, because they're not his drachmas!"
Scots WhatHae,
I am happy to pay taxes that help our common good. Increase taxes to balance the budget. Cut out waste, fraud, much of the war department, special interests. But help the truly needy domestically and globally. We are a rich nation.
As for CPB, it really helps our rural area. Otherwise, we only the big city markets support radio commercialized radio stations that care less about covering us.
AJ, you’re all twisted up in good intentions and big GOV. If you want to happily pay more taxes, be my guest & stroke another check. But keep your tax-happy talons out of my personal pockets… bc your concept of “common good” is badly bent. I will happily pay taxes that “provide the common defense” IAW the Constitution.
It’s sad to learn you are so happy to fork over your finances (and mine!) to the federal GOV… and for all the wrong reasons.:
+ Increasing taxes does NOT balance the budget, balancing the budget balances the budget. Happily increasing taxes just gives our bloated GOV more $$ to spend w/o any accountability.
+ Happily paying more taxes does NOT cut waste or fraud. And it’s naive to believe your GOV knows who are “truly needy” or how to help them. But it’s outlandish to believe our taxes should be spent to serve the truly needy “globally”.. or even that we could. You would bleed every American dry trying to do things not our duty to do. Your wish list is a flight of fancy.
Who taught you our GOV is a giant gum-ball vending machine full of American tax-payer dollars ready to service the needy & the globe for the common good? What do you mean by “we are a rich nation”? Why does being a “rich nation” give you the right to rake more $$ out of my bank and give it GOV for their good idea fairies?
Is it your pacifist perspective that causes you to call for “cutting” military spending, despite that being the tax purpose explicitly provided @ Constitution.?
I’m happy to pay taxes, too, toward the right ends as established @ Constitution. But neither you nor the GOV have a right to take my life’s labor for your twisted sense of the “truly needy.” You’re way out of your lane taking liberties like that. Our founders called such sentiments “plunder” & “tyranny.” So, they established our GOV in order to “promote the common good” & “provide common defense”… not the other way around. so stop subverting the original intent. Read it right & fight the good fight. Recommend you hit up some free Hillsdale College lectures online to reorient your “common good” compass.
RKIM8631
government cuts have adversely affected rural areas, particularly shutting down rural hospitals, and now may get worse with cut in medicaid funding. public broadcasting watching over the years is not "evil", although some programs I disagree with.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/16/pbs-congress-budget-cuts-rural-stations/85190136007/
The problem is this all or nothing approach in general in government, like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, especially with media
Yes, funding cuts will typically negatively affect the thing that is being cut. That seems apparent. That does not mean that the taxpayer should be on the hook from now until forever.
“The problem is this all or nothing approach in general in government.”
No. The problem is you thinking that your bleeding heart, mandates my bleeding wallet. You would rob Peter & me to pay all the world’s Pauls w/o batting an eye… while ignoring our Constitution that nowhere grants GOV the right to tax Americans to pay for CBP & the other 17 out-of-bounds bloated boondoggles cut by this bill.
The baby & the bathwater both need to be thrown out. All the way out. Both been sitting in the tub and soaking up other people’s property for so long that you started thinking it was a good thing, and even deserved. If you want to fund it, join Murkowski and make it happen. And, programs don’t have to be “evil” to be cut-worthy, they just needs to pass the cut test.
How unique, and quite refreshing, that you should reference the US Constitution. Per the 10th Amendment of that document, 80-90% of the federal government is unconstitutional.
Allen, are you trolling, joking or just that far down the welfare well ? It’s obvious I’m not saying what you said. I used none of those words or ideas. None. Every civics 101 student knows your unjust juxtaposition is straw-man built on a false premise that finds no merit in logic or the Constitution.
1st thing to clear up…
The categories in your Q reveal a poor understanding of GOV priorities & make awful assumptions about my motives….
This has nothing to do w/ front & back seats.
Nothing to do w/ love of money.
Nothing to do w/ empathy & compassion.
GOV isn’t in biz of empathy & compassion.
GOV doesn’t have empathy & compassion
I don’t want empathy & compassion GOV.
I want limited GOV per the Constitution.
The Constitution doesn’t give GOV empathy or compassion and for good reason… bc the founders knew full-well that one man’s so-called “compassion” would rob every other man of his property. You have no right to fight to sendthe fruit of my labor to strangers in Florida or France, just bc you feel compassion for someone, somewhere, for some reason. Your so-called empathy will erase my efforts to provide for my family, as you use GOV to provide for 15M immigrants who need “good homes” & “free healthcare.” Bleeding hearts will bleed my wallet dry. Take your compassion to church & the neighborhood corner and do your good deeds w/ your dough… and I’ll do the same.
2nd thing to get straight…
I have the RIGHT to the pursuit of happiness, which means I have the right to spend my money on my family as I see fit… not how you see fit on families you would chose for me. I don’t love money. I love my family. Incredible how you assume if I try to keep the GOV off my money, then it means I love money. My family is my love & I am called & duty bound to provide.
3rd thing to underdtand…
I have been fruitful & multiplied… so my family requires a lot of money to raise in food, clothes & private Christian education, in addition to the taxes I pay for strangers kids to get a free public atheist education. So keep your desire to donate my paycheck to your “compassionate” GOV to yourself.
My family has major medical bills that require my money to meet their medical needs, so my kids are in front seat… with my empathy.
But none of that really matters to my point…
In America people can pursue happiness as they see fit, including investing (or not) whatever they choose to who they feel compassion & empathy. Not the GOV! GOV is the exact wrong place to find compassion & empathy. You’ve forgotten the right role of GOV and given it wrong roles rooted in emotionally driven handouts for your pet projects at my expense. That leads to socialism & failure.
True empathy doesn’t justify taking another man’s money to force so-called “compassionate” contributions to fund endless ideas of idiots in government whose appetite for more more more money never never never ends. That’s plunder & theft disguised as Christianity.
Nice articulation of the truth about our government, and its responsibility , mainly to provide national defense, foreign policy, and regulating commerce. The gov. has become picked up the responsibilities that belong to the states, and the body of believers (the church).
Scotts, on national defense, remember the early U.S. government was warned against foreign entanglements. Currently the U.S. government spends more on its "defense" than the combined military budgets of the next ten highest nations. 800 foreign bases. Question: Is this defending your property and family from marauders? Or is this defending the American Empire that is able to manipulate international trade, oil, and alliances for enrichment? About government bloat, fraud, waste that you rightly lament, what about the Pentagon budget that cannot come close to passing an audit?
Explain how some of the following wars justify national defense? American-Mexican War; Spanish American War that included the Philippines; Vietnam War; Afghanistan and Iraq wars this century that have cost taxpayers several trillions. Were these protecting American properties and families, or American Empire?
On national defense, remember, the early U.S. gov that was warned — by GW —against foreign entanglements, was the same early US gov that was led — by GW — to “provide” common defense.
Don’t distract to derail w/ woes about bloated budgets & unjust wars. I abhor overgrown government & going to war on a whim. And I’m against happily increasing taxes for handouts to the globe.
Defunding a system that sends emergency alerts to rural areas just after a flash flood killed a whole bunch of people in a rural area who didn't get alerted in time is...certainly something.
Several decades ago I was with a team that started a community radio station in West Virginia with sponsors, mostly volunteers, and some funding from corporation for public broadcasting. We expanded a few years later to two counties in neighboring Virginia. Total population of our three counties is probably about 20,000. Local religious programming is part of the mix, along with local news, sports, programming including our traditional music, and valued by our elderly.Our teens once ran a contemporary Christian music program. When we have had devastating floods, the radio stations coordinated response. Emergency warnings on weather, local news that the major population centers further away do not cover. Our networked stations bring our community together. Corporate and private donors and sponsors and volunteer DJ's cover a lot of the expense. But our sparsely-populated area cannot cover all the expenses. We are grateful for the federal help. Now on the chopping block by this bill. Why?
“The measure cuts $9.4 billion in funding provided by the State Department…”
Correction: The State Department doesn’t have any funding to provide. Not $1. All funds *distributed* by USSD are “provided” by we the people… like me.
“The government” doesn’t “have” any money.
Spend less. Tax less. Bye Bye CPB!
Once you pay the taxes that are required to live in this society, it's no longer your money. This is pretty basic stuff. Unless what Jesus meant to say was "Don't render anything unto Caesar, because they're not his drachmas!"
Scots WhatHae,
I am happy to pay taxes that help our common good. Increase taxes to balance the budget. Cut out waste, fraud, much of the war department, special interests. But help the truly needy domestically and globally. We are a rich nation.
As for CPB, it really helps our rural area. Otherwise, we only the big city markets support radio commercialized radio stations that care less about covering us.
AJ, you’re all twisted up in good intentions and big GOV. If you want to happily pay more taxes, be my guest & stroke another check. But keep your tax-happy talons out of my personal pockets… bc your concept of “common good” is badly bent. I will happily pay taxes that “provide the common defense” IAW the Constitution.
It’s sad to learn you are so happy to fork over your finances (and mine!) to the federal GOV… and for all the wrong reasons.:
+ Increasing taxes does NOT balance the budget, balancing the budget balances the budget. Happily increasing taxes just gives our bloated GOV more $$ to spend w/o any accountability.
+ Happily paying more taxes does NOT cut waste or fraud. And it’s naive to believe your GOV knows who are “truly needy” or how to help them. But it’s outlandish to believe our taxes should be spent to serve the truly needy “globally”.. or even that we could. You would bleed every American dry trying to do things not our duty to do. Your wish list is a flight of fancy.
Who taught you our GOV is a giant gum-ball vending machine full of American tax-payer dollars ready to service the needy & the globe for the common good? What do you mean by “we are a rich nation”? Why does being a “rich nation” give you the right to rake more $$ out of my bank and give it GOV for their good idea fairies?
Is it your pacifist perspective that causes you to call for “cutting” military spending, despite that being the tax purpose explicitly provided @ Constitution.?
I’m happy to pay taxes, too, toward the right ends as established @ Constitution. But neither you nor the GOV have a right to take my life’s labor for your twisted sense of the “truly needy.” You’re way out of your lane taking liberties like that. Our founders called such sentiments “plunder” & “tyranny.” So, they established our GOV in order to “promote the common good” & “provide common defense”… not the other way around. so stop subverting the original intent. Read it right & fight the good fight. Recommend you hit up some free Hillsdale College lectures online to reorient your “common good” compass.
government cuts have adversely affected rural areas, particularly shutting down rural hospitals, and now may get worse with cut in medicaid funding. public broadcasting watching over the years is not "evil", although some programs I disagree with.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/16/pbs-congress-budget-cuts-rural-stations/85190136007/
The problem is this all or nothing approach in general in government, like throwing out the baby with the bathwater, especially with media
Yes, funding cuts will typically negatively affect the thing that is being cut. That seems apparent. That does not mean that the taxpayer should be on the hook from now until forever.
These things are literally why we pay taxes.
“The problem is this all or nothing approach in general in government.”
No. The problem is you thinking that your bleeding heart, mandates my bleeding wallet. You would rob Peter & me to pay all the world’s Pauls w/o batting an eye… while ignoring our Constitution that nowhere grants GOV the right to tax Americans to pay for CBP & the other 17 out-of-bounds bloated boondoggles cut by this bill.
The baby & the bathwater both need to be thrown out. All the way out. Both been sitting in the tub and soaking up other people’s property for so long that you started thinking it was a good thing, and even deserved. If you want to fund it, join Murkowski and make it happen. And, programs don’t have to be “evil” to be cut-worthy, they just needs to pass the cut test.
How unique, and quite refreshing, that you should reference the US Constitution. Per the 10th Amendment of that document, 80-90% of the federal government is unconstitutional.
Scots, are you saying that empathy and compassion takes a back seat to your love of money?
Allen, are you trolling, joking or just that far down the welfare well ? It’s obvious I’m not saying what you said. I used none of those words or ideas. None. Every civics 101 student knows your unjust juxtaposition is straw-man built on a false premise that finds no merit in logic or the Constitution.
1st thing to clear up…
The categories in your Q reveal a poor understanding of GOV priorities & make awful assumptions about my motives….
This has nothing to do w/ front & back seats.
Nothing to do w/ love of money.
Nothing to do w/ empathy & compassion.
GOV isn’t in biz of empathy & compassion.
GOV doesn’t have empathy & compassion
I don’t want empathy & compassion GOV.
I want limited GOV per the Constitution.
The Constitution doesn’t give GOV empathy or compassion and for good reason… bc the founders knew full-well that one man’s so-called “compassion” would rob every other man of his property. You have no right to fight to sendthe fruit of my labor to strangers in Florida or France, just bc you feel compassion for someone, somewhere, for some reason. Your so-called empathy will erase my efforts to provide for my family, as you use GOV to provide for 15M immigrants who need “good homes” & “free healthcare.” Bleeding hearts will bleed my wallet dry. Take your compassion to church & the neighborhood corner and do your good deeds w/ your dough… and I’ll do the same.
2nd thing to get straight…
I have the RIGHT to the pursuit of happiness, which means I have the right to spend my money on my family as I see fit… not how you see fit on families you would chose for me. I don’t love money. I love my family. Incredible how you assume if I try to keep the GOV off my money, then it means I love money. My family is my love & I am called & duty bound to provide.
3rd thing to underdtand…
I have been fruitful & multiplied… so my family requires a lot of money to raise in food, clothes & private Christian education, in addition to the taxes I pay for strangers kids to get a free public atheist education. So keep your desire to donate my paycheck to your “compassionate” GOV to yourself.
My family has major medical bills that require my money to meet their medical needs, so my kids are in front seat… with my empathy.
But none of that really matters to my point…
In America people can pursue happiness as they see fit, including investing (or not) whatever they choose to who they feel compassion & empathy. Not the GOV! GOV is the exact wrong place to find compassion & empathy. You’ve forgotten the right role of GOV and given it wrong roles rooted in emotionally driven handouts for your pet projects at my expense. That leads to socialism & failure.
True empathy doesn’t justify taking another man’s money to force so-called “compassionate” contributions to fund endless ideas of idiots in government whose appetite for more more more money never never never ends. That’s plunder & theft disguised as Christianity.
Nice articulation of the truth about our government, and its responsibility , mainly to provide national defense, foreign policy, and regulating commerce. The gov. has become picked up the responsibilities that belong to the states, and the body of believers (the church).
100 Agree! I elaborated on the “provide defense” point in another reply to AJ, above.
Scotts, on national defense, remember the early U.S. government was warned against foreign entanglements. Currently the U.S. government spends more on its "defense" than the combined military budgets of the next ten highest nations. 800 foreign bases. Question: Is this defending your property and family from marauders? Or is this defending the American Empire that is able to manipulate international trade, oil, and alliances for enrichment? About government bloat, fraud, waste that you rightly lament, what about the Pentagon budget that cannot come close to passing an audit?
Explain how some of the following wars justify national defense? American-Mexican War; Spanish American War that included the Philippines; Vietnam War; Afghanistan and Iraq wars this century that have cost taxpayers several trillions. Were these protecting American properties and families, or American Empire?
Scots doesn't love money. Scots loves power.
On national defense, remember, the early U.S. gov that was warned — by GW —against foreign entanglements, was the same early US gov that was led — by GW — to “provide” common defense.
Don’t distract to derail w/ woes about bloated budgets & unjust wars. I abhor overgrown government & going to war on a whim. And I’m against happily increasing taxes for handouts to the globe.
Scotts, just want you to know I appreciate the dialogue.
#meetoo
I appreciate you
Worth hashing out
But stay on your guard bc you know me…
“I love power!” 🤣