File this one under "Oh, please, people can't really be this stupid, can they?"

According to a poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research in March 2011, 7% of respondents answered that PBS and other public broadcasting services make up 50% or more of all federal government spending each year.

Another 4% think it is somewhere between 30% and 50%.

In fact, a full 40% think it is between 1% and 5%.

The reality is that 0.00014% of the annual federal budget goes towards public TV and radio.

And if you think that 7% isn't really that high of a number, think of how many Tea Party people probably fall into that category, and then consider the out-sized influence such misinformed people have had over the nation's policies in the past four years alone.

And we wonder why it's so hard to run a democracy these days.