Freedom Line Blog

In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino comments on the U.S. Department of Labor’s new smart phone app, designed to help outdoor workers prevent heat illness by informing them of… well… the temperature outside.  The Labor Department is not yet able to calculate its costs to taxpayers.  “Yes, that’s your government at work,” says Giachino. “They can tell you what temperature it is outside, but not how much it cost them to tell you. Maybe there should be an app for that.”

Less than 24 hours after the release of undercover video showing National Public Radio (NPR) senior executive Ron Schiller slamming the Tea Party movement as “seriously, seriously racist people” and “scary,” and proclaiming the organization would be better off without federal funding, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation) this morning announced her resignation.

As Politico.com reports the story:

Vivian Schiller, the chief executive of NPR, resigned Wednesday in the aftermath of controversial comments from a fundraising executive and as congressional Republicans push to end federal funding for public radio.

“The Board accepted her resignation with understanding, genuine regret, and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years,” board chairman Dave Edwards said in a statement. “I recognize the magnitude of this news and that it comes on top of what has been a traumatic period for NPR and the larger public radio community.” …

David Folkenflik, NPR’s media reporter, said on air Wednesday morning that sources had indicated to him that Schiller had been forced out by the board.

In related news, President Obama’s FY 2011 budget proposal calls for more than $450 million in taxpayer funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service.  In response to a question today about whether it was time for taxpayers to stop subsidizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and NPR, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made it clear that the president stands by the funding request.  “They are worthwhile and important priorities as our budget makes clear,” stated Carney.

Since its inception in the mid ’60s, the National Endowment for the Arts (“NEA”) has received billions in taxpayer dollars. 

Here is a link to its Congressional appropriations by year (through 2007), as they’re disclosed on the NEA website.

Below is a snapshot of taxpayer funding for just this decade alone:

Here is NEA’s FY 2010 appropriations request totaling $161,315 million.