In the week prior to the controversial decision made by the House of Representative to eliminated federal funding for public broadcasting, Congressmen Bill Owens (D) was extremely vocal in his opinion of the bill. He was open and honest about his relationship with his local PBS station stating he was their lawyer for 25 years and his wife still works for that station. In a speech he gave February 14th on the floor of the House he stated;

“I agree that reducing spending is a priority, but it must be achieved without resorting to ideologically based slash and burn tactics that will not allow us to facilitate a compromise with the Senate and White House. Which brings real reduction in spending based upon the shared pain which we all understand is needed.”

On this edition of Central Issues we not only discuss funding for PBS, we also ask Owens his opinion on Governor Cuomo’s budget and his thoughts on the turbulence in the Middle East.