During the 2012 United States presidential election debates, presidential candidate Mitt Romney referenced Big Bird in relation to funding for PBS, when addressing moderator Jim Lehrer: "I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That's number one." Romney has mentioned Big Bird (as well as Bert and Ernie) in his campaign remarks as early as December 28, 2011.