Comments on: GOP, Dems spar over broadband 'stimulus' and FCC powers

Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce Committee charge the FCC is given too much authority over broadband measures in the economic stimulus package, and that the process is being rushed through without any hearings.

[zonetuke]

Same partisan BS, except the Democrats are to blame this time. I hope the President can temper his party.

[gerrrg]

The GOP are right on the point that the most expensive bill (outside of an omnibus) deserves hearings.

As much as I agree with the general policies of the Democrats and trust Waxman more than most any other Democrat, we have no way of perfecting the flaws of this bill if it isn't aired out in public.

And it's not like we're one day away from disaster. If we hit economic disaster, it's because no one acted in 2007, and when Congress and the President acted in early 2008, their actions were so pathetically weak, that even with the stimulus bill, we were still in a recession for all of 2008.

So do the right thing and hold at least one hearing to go over contentious portions of the bill, and see if we can't get a compromise to get a bipartisan vote.

[Dalkorian]

Honestly, I have to agree here. But isn't it ironic that when the retardicans push through a bill this way it's because it's "must pass" bill, but when Democrats do the exact same thing it's an "abomination"?

We're in position now to clean up the mess left by the previous misadministration, we need to take a deep breath and do it right instead of trying to rush in and fix it quick. It will be a slow process and yes, some retardicans will blame Obama for the mess we're continuing to suffer - but in the end it will be Obama's Administration that will fix this mess and be credited for it. But first we have to do it right!

[timothywmurray]

Congress should and by default does have the power to overrule the FCC (google: congress overules FCC) if they do not like the definitions the FCC comes up with. So the question is: should the bill be delayed while congress members are educated on the topic, or should the bureaucrats at the FCC be given a first shot at it. They are supposed to be experts and professionals. Would real irreversible harm be done?
In recent years the FCC has made many mistakes, and they should be held to account, but we hire them to do a job and should expect them to do it properly.

[timothywmurray]

Congress should and by default does have the power to overrule the FCC (google: congress overrules FCC) if they do not like the definitions the FCC comes up with. So the question is: should the bill be delayed while congress members are educated on the topic, or should the bureaucrats at the FCC be given a first shot at it. They are supposed to be experts and professionals. Would real irreversible harm be done?
In recent years the FCC has made many mistakes, and they should be held to account, but we hire them to do a job and should expect them to do it properly.

[Endbringer]

This whole "stimulus package" is going to cost us and our children more than we can imagine at the moment. You cannot buy your way out of a recession. Hoover & then FDR did this and turned a deep recession into a Great Depression for 10 years with this same, exact reasoning. Europe only had about two to three years of a depression, but we had 10 because the government thought it could spend its way out of it. Not a single one of these proposals does anything to create wealth, which is the ONLY way to grow our economy and get out of the recession.

Within the past year, our elitists in Congress have just created around 20% of our official national debt worth of money ($2,500,000,000,000). Who's going to pay for this? There will be no new goods or services created from this, so demand and supply with stay the same only with more money around. That is what leads to inflation. The democrats, along with most republicans, are going to ruin our country because they fail to follow the Constitution and history.

I'd like to know where in our Constitution our government has the authority to provide Internet access to areas where the free market has determined it's not worth the money. 10th amendment? Screw it!

[ddesy]

The big problem as far as the government goes with money is an illegal war on a sovereign nation.

[Dalkorian]

Hitting anything on the head that accurately has got to be abuse ddesy. I believe Obama will address that one soon enough as well (the illegal war, not your nail abuse), but we have to give him some time. It took fuhrer bushit 8 years to do this much damage, Obama deserves more than a couple of days to address it all.

[scdecade]

I sense a Washington comprise in the making. A Washington compromise is when the two sides of the same party, the Republicrats, decide they've grandstanded for an appropriate amount of time to make it appear as though they disagree on a few trivial items. The compromise is when they agree to do everything each group wants instead of just everything one group wants.

[ddesy]

One more who can't tell the difference between the parties... great. If you pay attention, you will see that they really are not the same and that thinking that they are is just a way to be a rebel.

[Dalkorian]

A rebel? I wasn't thinking anything that intellectually glorious. ;-)

[scdecade]

ddesy, it depends on what you believe in. If you believe in big government, the welfare state, the warfare state, entitlements, fiat money, and secret prisons you're in luck. The "two" parties believe in those things too. They differ on a few other issues. So you've got a choice but either way you get the pork-stuffed, war making, bailout spending, central banker hand-puppets you seem to want. If you don't believe in those things, then you've got NO CHOICE AT ALL. Try to clever your way out of that box, genius.

[chash360]

Anyone that thinks that broadband access throughout the country will not help create jobs, and boost the economy, must think that our highway system, and transportation network does not help our country's economy either. Transportation of information or goods is essential to any developed country, not just a luxury, and not just for those who can afford it.

Open access will create jobs, instead of monopolies, if this resource is made free to access and use, then you won't have to pay to line the pockets of some giant telco exec's pockets, you can spend that money on other, real goods and services, which will also help the economy. Maybe start your own internet business without having such a huge internet bill.

Free market forces only engage where there is direct profit to be made, and does not always provide the greatest benefit. To even mention free market in the area of communications is a joke, since there really only a few, huge corperations who own and maintain the comunnications networks, and rarely compete in the same area. Think what it would be like if our highways were owned and managed like this. Say GM owned a particular highway, and you were only allowed to drive a GM car on it, and had to pay GM for every mile driven, on top of the operating and vehicle costs.

I am all for free enterprise when it is truly free (meaning unrestricted), but at the same time gross, gouging profits are to the economy, what huge heat and energy draining circuits are in a device, gross inefficiency and waste. Electrons in a circuit = Money in an economy.

Blanket spending bills will be a waste of time and money if not spent on the right things, but anything that will eliminate the gross gouging that occurs in the health care, energy, and communications industry should be put through with due haste. These are all basic things, that we all need, and should, dare I say, be socialized to some degree, not captialized upon. The same could be said for the Insurance industry. When something is shared/needed by all the people, and the country itself, it is social, whether you like the word or not, and does not have to displace free enterprise, or captialism.

The FCC is really one of the great places to start in fixing this country. By eliminating the incredible drain these monopolistic telco corperations have on our economy, all businesses and individuals will benefit from reduced operating costs. A universal, ubiquitous, wireless broadband network, without service or access charges would cost much less to build and maintain than wired networks, and create many more jobs, than owned, licensed networks. If only Verizon owns the networks, then only jobs are created for Verizon. Conversly, using the highway example, look how many road construction jobs, and companies are out there, truly competeing, for government contracts to build and maintain roads. Not to mention all the jobs that can be created utilizing such a valueable, and essential resource as communications. Our highway system is 'socialized', funded for by the tax payers, yet it creates countless jobs, without monopolies.

The FCC has made some huge blunders, but also they have made some smart decisions, like opening the white spaces. I sincerely hope they will continue making some of these better desicions, adopt sensible definitions, and establish open useful standards for its future developement.

Do this, AND recognize that free trade agreements, and offshore tax shelters, are bleeding the country dry of jobs and money, and Obama will be on the right track to turning this economy around. We need jobs, plain and simple, investing in the country's infrastructure, eliminating waste and inefficiencies, will go a long way towards creating those jobs and growing the economy.

Throwing money at every greedy corperation and financial institution that whines because they mismanaged themselves, that lobbied the gov for policies that ruin our consumer and manufacturing base, by shipping jobs overseas, is certainly not going to work.. They need boot to the head.

[scdecade]

What a silly collection of non sequitors. So the government is going to make communication infrastructure more efficient?!? Just like they've made the post office, the DMV, schools, health care, and retirement savings more "efficient"? Costs in heavily regulated sectors go up every year above the rate of inflation. Regulation and socialization of those services has been a disaster. You say "look how many road construction jobs, and companies are out there, truly competeing, for government contracts..." What world to you live in? Not this one. All government contracts are awarded by politicians for political reasons. Do you stand to personally benefit from this in some way?

[i8246i]

I agree with scdecade, and I also have to note that the major telecommunication companies have already been given BILLIONS of dollars and DECADES of time to get off their lazy behinds and get fiber optic cables laid across the nation.

I think its time to stop giving these greedy corporations more money and its time to start penalizing them for every day they don't make progress on getting this country up to snuff with Europe and Japan. And make the penalties come out of THEIR pockets, not the consumers.

[as901]

When the GOP say "undeserved", they mean little children, seniors and disabled veterans. When they speak of those that "deserve government aid", they mean billionaires who made billions more off the Iraq war and pro Republican, pro outsourcing, pro deregulation rich!

You know, the same folks whpo destroyed out economy!

Mark Heinemann
US Veteran