Mitt Romney stated in last week’s presidential debate that if he were elected, he would measure government programs by whether he felt they were worth borrowing money from China, and he also stated he felt PBS and Big Bird were not.

But millions of Americans believe the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio, which only costs the taxpayers about 0.0001 percent of the total budget and provides local news and information free of charge, are invaluable resources.

Romney’s willingness to cut this funding demonstrates his lack of understanding of the needs of this country and a willingness to suppress what the far right considers the questioning voice of the people.

PBS and NPR funding has been under attack by the GOP because of its uncompromising reporting of the actions of our government, the war on terror and the recent conservative agenda. These two networks stand accused of a liberal bias though they both have programs that are conservative and seek to express both sides of an issue.

The fact is, PBS has been an excellent tool and an integral part of our education system, and NPR quite often runs stories their corporate counterparts in the mainstream media are unlikely to show and it provides a voice to those that might normally be ignored.

PBS and NPR are long-standing American icons, and in my opinion, every bit as important as baseball and apple pie.

I think the desire to cut their funding demonstrates nothing more than an excuse to cut another social program from the budget and put tax cuts for the wealthy above education and freedom of speech while eliminating what many conservatives consider a weapon of the liberal agenda.

Is this the type of America we will have if Mitt Romney is elected? These two networks embody the very freedoms that America was founded upon most notably our right to question our leaders.

We cannot allow the voice of the public to be threatened because a small minority does not like what they hear.