In old 1980s horror movies, a knife-wielding, flannel-wearing serial killer is routinely killed—until he or she isn’t, and the franchise inexorably moves on to “Slasher the Sequel: This Time It’s Worse than Personal.”
I recall such mythic movie murderers not as a (literally) dead-end jaunt down memory lane but as a cautionary tale for Republicans and, indeed, all who hope to see the recent significant reductions in federal spending and, concomitantly, cuts in the administrative state’s bureaucracy to be made permanent. (The image of Elon Musk—the DOGE—clad in black and waving “the chainsaw for bureaucracy” is an irony worthy of the auteurs of the old French Nouvelle Vague.) Bluntly, these eliminations and reductions must be a solid first step—not an ephemeral swan song—in the effort to restore the primacy of citizens over their servant government.
Unless supporters of citizen-driven, responsive government pursue a vigilant, assiduous salting of the fields of the debilitated Deep State, the left—like Jason Voorhees and his homicidal celluloid ilk—will not only resurrect its administrative state Leviathan, but it will also expand its scope and control over the American people.
As it stands, our national debt is nearly $40 trillion. There are additional steps that President Trump and his administration can and must take to generate non-taxpayer revenue that can help address our crushing national debt.
Consider the case of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), and the next necessary step in ensuring the left cannot resurrect this outdated dinosaur from history’s dumpster.
President Trump needs to call for the development and, ultimately, sign an executive order directing the FCC to begin the process of working with Congress to sell at auction the radio and television spectrum currently being used by public broadcasting stations across the country. Logically, if the federal government no longer funds CPB or PBS—and neither entity is willing to adjust its programming to meet its public service requirements—they no longer require or deserve this radio and TV spectrum.
Public broadcasters receive licenses to use the spectrum from the FCC in exchange for fulfilling certain public-interest obligations, which include informing, educating, and enriching the public. This deal for locally owned public radio and TV stations may have been helpful to the American public sixty years ago, prior to the advent of cable TV and wired and wireless broadband.
Today’s media landscape, however, is far more competitive, with Americans having more educational and news options than anyone could have imagined even twenty years ago. Indeed, the rationale that for-profit broadcasters would not air educational or “cultural” events due to low ratings and lack of advertisers has long been remedied by the internet. Today, if one wants to watch a clip of Vladimir Horowitz playing Chopin, one needs only go—at no cost—to YouTube.
In the wake of the modern communications revolution, the greatest public service that federal spectrum can provide is the tens of billions in revenue to help cut the federal debt. Over the past decade, auctions of TV and radio spectrum have generated more than $100 billion in revenue. And because the spectrum used by public broadcasters is owned by the federal government, no revenue would have to be shared with any private entity. The math is elementary: the public owns the spectrum, and so the spectrum should be used to pay off the massive national debt incurred in the people’s name.
As a practical matter, the spectrum most likely would be purchased at auction by mobile communications or other innovative companies seeking to meet demand by consumers for wireless technologies. Some may argue that the public broadcasters currently using this spectrum serve Americans in rural areas without wired broadband or with poor wireless connectivity. However, the past few auctions sold off prime spectrum that enabled 5G mobile broadband innovations, ones that greatly expanded access for video streaming and high-speed broadband on mobile devices. Thus, the federally owned public broadcasting spectrum will help consumers—be they rural or urban—to access the very services and content some claim they cannot today.
The CPB and PBS are currently seeking private funds and nonprofit donations to maintain operations. This is doubtless an attempt to stave off elimination until the left can return to power and ride to their rescue. And, even without federal funding for their programs, they will continue producing the same leftist propaganda pretending to be “news” and “commentary” or recycling British TV shows that most Americans can watch on multiple streaming platforms or on the Internet. Either way, these erstwhile federally funded entities should not be allowed to use the spectrum owned by the American taxpayer for profit or to share misinformation and leftist propaganda that mislead the American public and create division in our society.
Spectrum is a limited and valuable resource. It should not be wasted on institutions that have little interest in supporting the interests of all Americans. The left’s caterwauling against such a proposed auctioning of the spectrum only evidences their selfish pursuit of power. In truth, auctioning off the spectrum is the one way for all Americans to benefit from this situation.
Therefore, for the good of Americans’ financial security and intellectual liberty, it is time for the Trump Administration and the FCC to begin the process of working with Congress to sell off publicly owned spectrum to reduce our national debt. It is not hyperbole to assert this process must start now: it takes time for the FCC to work with other agencies to do all the technical work required to prepare the spectrum auction—sometimes five or more years.
And that is more than enough time for the left to try to breathe life back into the once-thought-defunct denizens of their administrative state. It’s best to make sure there can be no sequel to their bureaucratic horror show.
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003–2012. He served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee and as a member of the Financial Services, Joint Economic, Budget, Small Business, and International Relations Committees. Not a lobbyist, he is also a contributor to Chronicles, a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars, and a co-host of “John Batchelor: Eye on the World” on CBS radio, among sundry media appearances.