Touting Sesame Street's newest muppet character, a young girl living in poverty, MSNBC host Martin Bashir on Wednesday slammed Republican efforts to curb spending and urged: "...perhaps they do well to change the channel just for a moment from Fox News to PBS.... on Sesame Street they will see the sad face of a hungry doll whose family doesn't have enough money to buy food." [Audio available here]
Bashir began his rant by announcing: "One in four children under the age of 6 now lives in poverty.....And it's gotten so bad, that even Sesame Street can no longer ignore it." Despite Barack Obama being in the White House, Bashir attacked the GOP for that statistic: "...as Republicans in Congress push to slash subsidies for home heating oil and work with all their might to cut off unemployment benefits..." [View video after the jump]
Bashir depicted Republicans as stereotypical wealthy fat cats who all watch Fox News and drink expensive champagne: "We're not recommending that they leave any of their opulent salons in Washington, nor decline that invitation to attend a dinner party at the home of a wealthy lobbyist. No, all we're asking is that they change the channel for just a few minutes....And then they can go back to Fox News and the finest Bollinger that money can buy."
Here is a full transcript of Bashir's October 5 outburst:
3:45PM ET
MARTIN BASHIR: One in four children under the age of 6 now lives in poverty. That statistic is not drawn from an African nation, but it applies to children living in America today. Indeed, since the recession began, over two and a half million children in this country go to bed hungry and under-nourished. And it's gotten so bad, that even Sesame Street can no longer ignore it. Meet the newest muppet on the block, her name is Lilly and her life story, as she tells it, seems a world away from the normally happy times on the street.
LILLY: When you don't even know whether you're going to have a next meal or not, that can be pretty hard.
So as Republicans in Congress push to slash subsidies for home heating oil and work with all their might to cut off unemployment benefits, perhaps they do well to change the channel just for a moment from Fox News to PBS this Sunday night.
We're not recommending that they leave any of their opulent salons in Washington, nor decline that invitation to attend a dinner party at the home of a wealthy lobbyist. No, all we're asking is that they change the channel for just a few minutes, because there, on Sesame Street they will see the sad face of a hungry doll whose family doesn't have enough money to buy food, a fictional take on a factual reality for millions of children in modern America. And then they can go back to Fox News and the finest Bollinger that money can buy.
