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House Republicans cut about $115 million from the budgets of PBS and NPR, and Rep. Ed Markey has pulled out the tired old lines that saved PBS from budget cuts a decade ago. This from the Boston Globe:

"Dick Cheney and the Republicans have decided to go hunting for `Big Bird' and `Clifford the Big Red Dog' once again," said Representative Edward J. Markey , a Malden Democrat who led the successful effort to reverse the cuts last year. "PBS is right at the top of their hit list -- always has been and always will be, until they can destroy it."

Never mind that both "Sesame Street" and shows like "Clifford" make a number of companies pant-loads of money, with never a dime being returned to the federal government. The programming simply isn't as good as what is being aired on 15 commercial children and educational channels that compete against PBS. And most kids aren't watching the mediocre drek that PBS puts on.

We're hearing that the Republicans have no expectations that their cuts will survive final passage of the bill. As one staffer told us this morning, the cuts will end up being used by some Republicans to get something else either returned to the legislation or pulled.

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