On Thursday night, Jimmy Kimmel mocked President Donald Trump’s budget cuts, which included axing funds to PBS and NPR. The host decided to show Trump firing Big Bird from Sesame Street.One problem with this. Sesame Street currently airs on HBO.Kimmel inserted Big Bird into an episode of The Celebrity Apprentice:
“I say you’re fired,” said Trump“I guess we’ll have to find a new place to live,” said a despondent Big Bird.“It’s too bad, but that’s the way it goes,” said Trump looking at his son, Donald Trump Jr.
Again, Sesame Street moved to HBO back in 2015. These episodes only air on PBS after a nine month window:
Sesame Workshop CEO Jeffrey D. Dunn said the deal ““provides Sesame Workshop with the critical funding it needs to be able to continue production of Sesame Street and secure its nonprofit mission of helping kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder; it gives HBO exclusive pay cable and SVOD access to the nation’s most important and historic educational programming; and it allows Sesame Street to continue to air on PBS and reach all children, as it has for the past 45 years.”In addition to the next five seasons of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop will also produce a Sesame Street Muppet spin-off series as well as develop a new educational series for children.
I believe Kimmel has a lot of money along with his Hollywood friends. If this is such an important issue for them why can’t they all get together and help fund it? Why must the government do it?
Kimmel also mocked the cutting for Meals on Wheels, which is not entirely accurate. The majority of the funding of the program comes from private donations. The government funds falls fifth on the list of the programs funds:
The relevant Department of Housing and Urban Development section of the budget contains the following language:
Eliminates funding for the Community Development Block Grant program, a savings of $3 billion from the 2017 annualized CR level. The Federal Government has spent over $150 billion on this block grant since its inception in 1974, but the program is not well-targeted to the poorest populations and has not demonstrated results. The Budget devolves community and economic development activities to the State and local level, and redirects Federal resources to other activities.
Meals on Wheels, a program that supports the delivery of meals to seniors who cannot afford food or cannot prepare it, started in Australia and has been in the United States since 1954. The program serves 2.4 million seniors every year and does get funding from the Community Development Block Grant program.
But the situation is complicated and saying that the budget eliminates the Meals on Wheels program is factually incorrect. According to the Meals on Wheels annual IRS filing for 2015 (it isn’t a government program), approximately 3.3 percent of its funding comes from government sources. Most is from corporate and foundation grants, with individual contributions the second largest source. Government grants are actually the fifth largest source of revenue.
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