TMBFAverageJoe: Why should cutting Big Bird be exempt from spending cuts? If you can't cut Big Bird, what can you cut?

If Sesame Street wants to stay on the air, let it earn its own survival as all other entertainment shows do:
by ratings and sponsorship.

Sesame Street could earn its place on air ten times over without even trying. So could Dora, Elmo, Arthur, Curious George, etc. (can you tell I am in the process of raising 4 kids 10 and under?). That's why none of them would go anywhere. But instead they subsidize the other crap on PBS, plus provide a nice strawman to keep the taxpayer money flowing.