Dr. Samuel B. Hoff is a George Washington Distinguished Professor Emeritus and an internship director at Delaware State University. He is a past president of Delmarva Discussions.
By the time this piece reaches Daily State News readers, it is likely that Congress will have already given back $1.1 billion previously approved for public television and radio funding to the White House. While the process by which that has been done stinks, even more concerning is the result.
A public budget is a blueprint, a plan, a set of priorities for spending funds in a calendar year. At the federal level, the top priorities include defense and security, but there are many other areas encompassed, covering topics such as labor, commerce, energy, education, housing, transportation and agriculture. Too, since 1969, the government has funded nonprofit television and radio through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Through links to local television and radio stations throughout the nation, millions of Americans enjoy documentaries, features and specials on subjects like history, science and nature, and arts and music.
Unfortunately, the federal government has only produced a balanced annual budget three times since 1969 and has ballooned the national debt 100 times what we owed then.
Now, in a continuation of indiscriminate budget cuts to compensate for the long-term additional debt created by the “Big Beautiful Bill” just enacted, the Donald Trump administration has tapped the rescission procedure to stop several items already earmarked for appropriation, including the aforementioned CPB cuts. Part of the Budget Control and Impoundment Act of 1974, rescission allows the return of approved funds within a specific time frame, if approved by Congress. Since then, nine American presidents have requested over $90 billion in cuts, of which 27% have actually went back to the Treasury.
However, all of those previous instances of rescission actions took place in the light of day and were highlighted by broad bipartisan agreement in Congress. In only one previous case — dealing with President Trump during his first term in 2018 — was a president unsuccessful in convincing the House of Representatives and Senate to return any previously approved dollars. In the current case, the Senate voted on the rescission package in the dead of night, and similar tactics were promised in the House to deliver it to the president. No Democrats have agreed to this fiasco.
On a personal level, I support a balanced federal budget every year and wonder why hardworking Americans can balance their own finances, but Congress can’t. It is never too late to start. But, even within that controlled spending, there must be room for kids’ cartoons, historical documentaries and live local specials — all samples of programming on Public Broadcasting — or updated news and information, like that on National Public Radio stations.
A nation’s health can be measured by a plethora of indexes. Correspondingly, symbols of a country’s sickness may be harder to detect. But make no mistake: Robbing funds from the broadcasting arts is removing the resources that define the essence of a sophisticated yet thoroughly compassionate society. Recently, Elon Musk claimed that empathy is the great weakness of Western culture. To which, former rock star and promoter Bob Geldof responded, “You fool. Empathy is the glue of humanity. It is the basis of civilization.”
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
