Washington, D.C. – Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA) made the following statement in response to the President’s 2007 budget, released today, which includes a$53.5 million cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 2007 and a $50 million decrease in CPB funds for 2008.

“Oscar the Grouch has been friendlier to Sesame Street characters than the Bush  Administration, which  has chosen to make huge cuts to children’s television programming.” said Rep. Markey.  “In a world of fast-and-furious television with content often inappropriate for young children, the public broadcasting system represents the last stronghold of quality, child-oriented programming – we owe this free over-the-air resource to America’s children and their parents.”

CPB is the US-tax payer funded agency that provides critical dollars to public media across the country.  According to the non-partisan Roper polling firm, Americans consider the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) the nation’s “most trusted” among nationally-known organizations.  They also believe that PBS is the second “most valuable” service taxpayers receive, outranked only by national defense.  The same poll also found that a majority of Americans believes the system receives too little funding.  The President’s budget makes cuts that are more aggressive than the cuts made by the U.S. Congressional budget to the CPB budget.