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Feel Guilty About Your Tax Rebate?
Give It To NPR's Socialist Buddies! (7-30-01)

Feel just awful about the irresponsible tax cut passed by President Bush and the evil Republicans? Think this will exacerbate an already economically polarized America? Think the Wealthiest 1 % of Americans should pay much more than the 23 % of total federal taxes they do now ? Think it's unfair that people who didn't pay income taxes won't be getting a tax rebate ? Think a suckerfish deserves your rebate more than you do?

If so, you agree with United For A Fair Economy, an organization that wants you to Reject The Rebate and send your $300 or $600 to them to pass along to organizations who want to make sure you never get another rebate again. Actually, you can pledge your money to more than the 60 "tax fairness" organizations that UFE makes eligible for your cash. You can also choose among 100 environmental groups (including The Tibetan Plateau Project), 60 civil right groups, 51 Northern California groups, 25 freedom of expression groups (which includes NPR), 24 human rights groups, 22 animal rights groups, 18 international relief groups and 14 gay & lesbian groups. All you need to do to salve your conscience for having income is to log on to www.rejecttherebate.com and get in touch with your Inner-Schlemiel.

How did I find out about the Reject The Rebate project? Why, from National Public Radio,of course ! They're always ready to skew their news programming to present even an obscure group's opposition to Bush, Republicans and conservative thought in general. I was listening to NPR to catch up on the latest liberal spin on the news when some sincere-voiced female NPR journalist started interviewing the head of Reject The Rebate. He ranted and raved against Bush and the hateful tax cutters in Congress for what seemed like forever saying, among other demagoguery, Republicans are hell-bent to starve children and old people. And he did it all with the interviewer accepting everything he said, her nodding head actually audible over the radio.

This really bugs me. Any national media organization that gets any tax money should not be a propaganda arm of the Democrat National Committee. That's what ABC, NBC,CNN and Dan (Who's Gary Condit?) Rather's CBS are for. My tax money shouldn't be going to the selling of leftist ideas I think are bad for the country. Funds for public radio and public TV should be stopped immediately, and these organizations turned into totally for-profit businesses. There is enough good, apolitical programming on these networks to exist on their own, without taxpayer help. If public TV had been thinking like capitalists and had taken a cut from Sesame Street, they would not have had any financial problems ever again.

The proof that public radio and TV could survive is that they are already in competition with our capitalist economy's radio and TV stations. Being a "sponsor" of a public radio program is not cheap. And if you really pay attention, you'll notice there's a ton of paid advertising on public TV. The Wall $treet Week program is absolutely cluttered with commercials before and after the show itself. The only difference is they're not 30 seconds long. Last Friday on Wall$treet Week, there was a 15-second spot for Deloitte & Touche, a 13-second spot for Oppenheimer Funds, a 12.5-second spot for AG Edwards, a 7-second spot for Kaufman/Federated Funds and a 11.5- second "brought to you by…" for Hilliard Lyons Brokerage. And this block of commercials ran twice within the half-hour. The U.S. government, by  way of our taxes, is in competition with its own citizens, the people who own stock in radio and TV stations, and the people who work there.

I wish someone would start a Reject The Subsidy project where we could deny our tax dollars to unworthy causes. But unfortunately, that won't happen. And it certainly wouldn't get any free advertising on NPR. Mainly because public radio and  public TV should be among its first victims. There's no longer a reason for them to exist. Even the poorest Appalachian mountaineer up the deepest holler has a satellite dish to access any cultural programming they want. (That satellite dish comes before food !) And Daniel Schorr doesn't do Gangster Rap well.

 I know that some  will disagree with me. For you, I say go to RejectTheRebate.com immediately. They need your help. And the need is great. There's a suckerfish born every minute.

Excerpt from NotSo SERIOUS MONEY,
a weekly online financial newsletter written by
randybarker@aol.com