House GOP Decides-- On A Strictly Party-Line Vote-- To DeFund NPR

In violation of his own 72 hour rule, Boehner forced through a vote yesterday to defund National Public Radio, using as a pretext the doctored, trumped up, and utterly irrelevent tapes manufactured by a discredited (even by Glenn Beck!) far right-wing stalker. As easy as it may be to take in eager acolytes like Boehner and Cantor and their dysfunctional caucus, House Rules Committee Ranking Member Louise Slaughter (D-NY) refused to be distracted by their circus:

“This bill has not received one iota of input from the American public. Instead Republicans are rushing a bill through what they describe as an emergency meeting of the Rules Committee and violating their own pledge to allow 72 hours for members to ‘read the bill’. There have been no committee hearings or markups. This is hardly the open and deliberative process we were promised by the majority.”

“NPR plays a valuable role in providing millions of Americans with in-depth reporting and is often the only source of reliable news in rural parts of the country. NPR doesn’t try to blur the line between opinion, fact and political agenda. It is under attack in the name of fiscal responsibility and yet a preliminary report by the Congressional Budget Office has determined the legislation does absolutely nothing to reduce the deficit. With millions of Americans still unemployed, we can’t afford to fritter away valuable time pandering to a few far-right ideologues.”

Although NPR is crucial to under-served rural communities across the country where radio is a vast wasteland of nothing but religious indoctrination and Hate Talk hysteria, it was Manhattan's Jerry Nadler who put forward the most cogent analysis yesterday of what the GOP was up to:

“Today’s action by House Republicans to defund NPR is absolutely outrageous. NPR provides critical news and information to millions of people throughout the country, and federal funding to maintain its programming is supported by the vast majority of Americans. 
 
“This is just the latest assault by the House Republicans to cut funding based NOT on what will save the most money, but on what will score the most political points. It is reckless, irresponsible, and shameful. In fact, the Republican assault on accurate information is simply breathtaking. The Republican Party is clearly acting in response to politically motivated vendettas against perceived pillars of liberal strength.
 
“The Republicans are not trying to create jobs, they are not acting in the best interests of the middle class, and they are not focusing on the economy. Instead, they are running the House based on a severely regressive and narrow-minded ideology. Shame on them.”

This was the statement the White House released just before the vote:

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 1076, which would unacceptably prohibit Federal funding of National Public Radio (NPR) and the use of Federal funds by public radio stations to acquire radio content. As part of the President’s commitment to cut spending, the President’s Budget proposed targeted reductions in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which provides a small amount of funding for NPR, and the Administration has expressed openness to other spending reductions that are reasonable. However, CPB serves an important public purpose in supporting public radio, television, and related online and mobile services. The vast majority of CPB’s funding for public radio goes to more than 700 stations across the country, many of them local stations serving communities that rely on them for access to news and public safety information. Undercutting funding for these radio stations, notably ones in rural areas where such outlets are already scarce, would result in communities losing valuable programming, and some stations could be forced to shut down altogether.

In the end the Democrats offered a motion to recommit that failed-- strictly along party lines-- 184-235 and then Doug Lamborn, the radical right congressman from Colorado Springs, presented his defunding resolution, H.R. 1076 (no cosponsors) which passed 228-192. Every single Democrat plus seven lonely Republicans, primarily from rural districts with a great deal of NPR-listenership-- Sean Duffy (WI), Chris Gibson (NY), Richard Hanna (NY), Steve LaTourette (OH), Dave Reichert (WA), Patrick Tiberi (OH) and Rob Woodall (GA)-- voted NO and teabagger Justin Amash (R-MI) voted "Present." Is this what voters thought they would be getting when they made their decisions in November? Here's Anthony Weiner mocking the GOP for their inability to do anything for the country other than partisan bullshit like defunding... Click & Clack: