Steve Southerland: “We talk about Big Bird and that sounds wonderful. We had a couple of Big Birds in my family. We have four small…”

“We talk about Big Bird and that sounds wonderful. We had a couple of Big Birds in my family. We have four small children, and they love Big Bird. But I will tell you this: When the CEO of Sesame Street is compensated $956,000 in 2008 compensation, that's over double what the leader of the free world makes. Think about that: $956,000, when, in the same year, Sesame Street received $211 million in toy and consumer product sales. So to stand here and say that we have the luxury at this incredibly critical crisis moment in our deficit struggles that we have the luxury of making sure that PBS can pay Mrs. Kerger $632,000 in salary, and that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting can pay its President and CEO $300,000 apiece, I mean, really. Are we serious? Are we serious? We can do better. We must do better. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from California has 3 minutes remaining. The gentlewoman from Tennessee has 6 minutes remaining.”