PBS’s federal subsidy needs to be ended in order to properly set the tone for spending cuts. Balancing the federal budget is going to inflict real pain on people a little later on in the process. Before we make cuts like that, its important to show that all spending that wasn’t needed was cut and those programs that could be safely privatized were in fact privatized. I don’t think it right to say “We’re cutting Navy R&D, but we’re still funding Big Bird.”