Eric Schmitt made a devastating case for defunding NPR and PBS while leading Senate passage of the $9 billion “rescissions” spending cut bill this past week.

But in truth, the Missouri senator tells The Heartlander in an exclusive interview, the far-left networks made an even better argument for ending their $1 billion in tax subsidies.

“Well, I think they’ve made the case over the years that they don’t deserve taxpayer dollars,” Schmitt said. “You look at this programming, particularly with NPR. You’ve got the CEO, of course, calling President Trump a deranged racist. You’ve got this really radical gender ideology, or racial divisiveness.  

“I mean, look, if she wants to do that on her own dime, that’s one thing. But the taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize the programming that’s incredibly biased. 

“Now, the same goes for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, through PBS. They’ve demonstrated themselves to be ideologically captured on the left. They can go raise money from more of their donors now. But Missouri taxpayers shouldn’t have to subsidize those organizations looking down on them and continuing to push programming that belittles us.

“I think it’s time that these stations can operate on their own just like everybody else. There’s no reason, in this day and age in 2025, for taxpayer-subsidized programming. They can survive on their own. 

“And the fact is, they’ve made a decision with your money to be overtly leftist and have favorable coverage for Democrats – and demonstrably, and by way of evidence, negative coverage against Republicans. And like I said, if you want to watch that kind of bias, turn on MSNBC, but you shouldn’t have to pay for it with PBS or NPR.”

Schmitt also made the case that the far left had cynically, surreptitiously used the U.S. Treasury as a “piggy bank” for “global left-wing revolution” – particularly by funneling billions in tax dollars through USAID to leftist non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Do Americans have their arms around all the waste and fraud unearthed since January, especially through the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?

“I think this is all coming into further view,” Schmitt says. “Part of the thing about the rescissions package that was so important was, not only did we take on the subsidization of NPR and PBS and their woke ideology, but this NGO network that works in the foreign aid space: $800 million a year to funnel mass migration into this country through NGOs. 

“People were never asked if they support that, but that’s exactly what was going on at USAID and other organizations that were being funded with your tax dollars. 

“This rescissions package was an effort to say we found $9 billion worth of that. And we’re going to knock it off. We’re not going to do it. We’re taking that money away, and people can have the assurance that at least their government will listen to them when this kind of stuff’s happening and course correct.”

Yet, with a huge national debt and lingering yearly deficit, cutting $9 billion is fairly a drop in the bucket – and was cut only after senators worked into the wee hours over the course of days to do even that much.

How will Congress ever suction out the deeper fat, if cutting just $9 billion took Hercules on steroids?

“Yeah, nothing seems to be easy in the U.S. Senate, that’s for sure,” Schmitt chuckles, “and last night we went longer than I would have liked. But at the end of the day we were successful and that’s all that matters. 

“I’d like to see us take up more of these [spending cut bills]. I’d like for us also, through our normal process, to find savings and really rein in spending. I think people are kind of tired of it. We’re $37 trillion in debt. I think we need to be responsible. 

“But I would say, you look at what’s happened in these first seven months – it’s pretty remarkable, with the cabinet, the team of reformers that are working on the inside. Then you’ve got the Big, Beautiful Bill, with the no tax on tips and no tax on overtime, and making sure we’re funding deportations and detention spaces and securing our border and our military, and working families get tax relief and businesses have certainty. 

“And now we moved to a rescission package where we save $9 billion. 

“It’s a pretty incredible run over the first seven months, and I think our economy is set up for a great runway here over the next four years.”

The federal budget may have been trimmed back, but in the process Schmitt’s stature has only grown, as the lead sponsor and floor manager of the rescissions package.

“We should give a special shout-out to Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri,” Trump supporter Steve Bannon, told Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “I think he was a tremendous ally of yours in trying to pound this through.”

“Senator Schmitt was a warrior,” Vought replied.

Notably, failing to pass the spending cuts would have undoubtedly taken a ton of wind out of the populist Trump revolution. How in the world was Schmitt tasked with leading something so difficult and pivotal, despite having arrived in the upper chamber only in 2023?

“I think having a good relationship with the White House and with my colleagues,” he explains. “It was quite an honor to be tapped to go do that, and I’m just glad we were successful; $9 billion, or $90 billion, really, over the 10-year window. That’s a big deal, and it’s something we haven’t done in decades in this town, is pass a rescissions package that will save taxpayers money. 

“It’s about the money, but it’s also about demonstrating we had the political will to go do that, that people sent us there to do something different, disrupt the status quo and root out some of that wasteful spending. And we got it done.”