• Submitted by: manso
• Politics and Government
• 04 / 11 / 2011

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(rtvm) The Council on Hemispheric Affairs wonders why "House Republicans showed no difficulties in placing National Public Radio (NPR) on the chopping block" while overlooking "conservative pet projects that are far more costly, of lower quality, and ineffective."

COHA, a Washington-based think tank, identifies the more costly and ineffective projects as Radio and TV Martí.

"Both are expensive and fruitless remnants of Cold War-era propaganda battles," COHA says in a research document that explores the stations' history and effectiveness – or lack thereof.

"Their termination would go largely unnoticed by Cubans and be applauded by most U.S. taxpayers, who presently shell out roughly 30 million dollars every year to fund the broadcasts," the document says.

COHA goes on to call the stations "a self-serving right-wing agenda that has not produced reliable results. If Republicans and like-minded Democrats truly want to cut wasteful spending, the OCB broadcasts should be the first casualties of the ongoing (npr) budget war."

On March 17, the U.S. House voted to terminate National Public Radio's federal funding, which amounted to 5 million dollars last fiscal year. The House bill also barred public radio stations from using federal grants to pay dues to NPR. Both actions would seriously hamper NPR's operations.

Source: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/2011/04/