White House pledges another $800 million for broadband stimulus
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 6th 2010 4:48PM
posted July 6th 2010 4:48PM
Usually, when we see "stimulus" and "broadband" in the same sentence it's because someone turned off our Google SafeSearch filter, but today we have one such item that is totally safe for work. According to Information Week, the $7.2 billion in broadband grants and loans that we've already seen will be buttressed by an additional $800 million. A total of sixty-six new infrastructure projects (with up to 5,000 new jobs created in the process) are planned to launch in every state of the union (and Washington DC to boot). That is, of course, if the congressional appropriations committee doesn't siphon off $602 million of it to offset the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Once we emerge from the immediate crisis, the long-term economic gains to communities that have been left behind in the digital age will be immeasurable," President Obama said in the announcement.
@mjkxxl nobody is against innovation.. government just is not the ones to do it!! Nor can they afford it.. check the debt for a change...
When you are paying 75% in taxes.... you will be the first to complain...
@desmo
Son I own my own business, so pretty sure I pay more taxes in a month than you do in 5 years.......
And private comapanies WILL NOT do it unless either the government forces their hand or they do it themselves. A company is there to make profit, that is it, if they can force you to use a substandard product and keep increasing it's price...that is exactly what they will, and as a private company, should do. There is no advantage for lets say Comcast to increase the size or quality of their pipe if they are the only game in town. The will keep it up just enough so that people will chose it over something like....lets say....DSL.
Also I well aware of debt, and I am also well aware that we need to pay it off. Perhaps if we stop staring wars for no point, stop giving tax breaks to the rich (myself included) then we would not have these issues.
Like I stated in one of my previous posts......it really is simple arithmetic when you come down to it.......something conservative people just hate to use. Not sure if it is just math that bothers them or what the deal is!
@mjkxxl Amen!!!
So millions of gallons of oil spewing into our coastlines takes a backseat to broadband. We seem to have a problem with priority regardless of who is in office.
@Akulamenuri
Yeah because if there was anyone else in office they would wave the Jesus wand and then the oil would magically stop flowing............
I mean this crap drives me nuts. There is nothing Obama, or BP at this point can do about it, until that relief well HOPEFULLY gets to the right spot. I am not about to defend Obama on this, I think he should force all deep wells to have relief wells drilled simultaneously so that if the main goes and the blowout fails, we can have mobile rigs on site to relieve the pressure within 72 hours.
But that would be common sense. I mean why would people want redundant systems on something as important as deep water well drilling? Dealing with our aging infrastructure (such as the switch from telephone lines to a single data pipeline) is an issue that needs to be addressed. Believe it or not we actually have to do two things at once. I wish the oil would stop tomorrow, but guess what, it isn't and until that relief well gets there, we are pretty well screwed.
Just remember this very same idiot in chief also funded -
1. $1.5 million in “free” stimulus money for a new wastewater treatment plant results in higher utility costs for residents of Perkins, Oklahoma.
2. $1 billion for FutureGen in Mattoon, Illinois is the “biggest earmark of all time” for a power plant that may never work.
3. $15 million for “shovel-ready” repairs to little-used bridges in rural Wisconsin are given priority over widely used bridges that are structurally deficient.
4. $800,000 for little-used John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania airport to repave a back-up runway; the ‘Airport for Nobody’ Has Already Received Tens of Millions in Taxpayer dollars.
5. $3.4 million for a wildlife “eco-passage” in Florida to take animals safely under a busy roadway.
6. Nevada non-profit gets $2 million weatherization contract after recently being fired for same type of work.
7. $1.15 million for installation of a new guard rail for the non-existent Optima Lake in Oklahoma.
8. Nearly $10 million to renovate an abandoned train station that hasn’t been used in 30 years.
9. 10,000 dead people get stimulus checks, but the Social Security Administration blames a tough deadline.
10. Town of Union, New York, encouraged to spend a $578,000 grant it did not request for a homelessness problem it claims it does not have.
@nastro
I am sorry, I was about to add that up but then I realized:
$1 Trillion on stupid, pointless war costing 5k+ lives minus ~$40 million that people have misused equals still a lot more money wasted on pointless war.
Seriously the way that conservatives bitch and moan about spending, I can't believe they actually went through the previous administration without so much as rally. I mean seriously you guys could not do basic accounting if I were to purchase you a Office 2010 Student edition with Microsoft Excel!!
@mjkxxl
I get my mac to do it for me, using iWork.
- Sent from my iPhone
@mjkxxl
And let me guess. You were one of those screaming about the spending in the Bush years? The Patriot Act? War? Gitmo?
But I bet you are pretty silent now. DC is still spending like crazy, and people like you are now silent. Obama still has the Patriot Act, and people like you are silent. Still fighting wars, Gitmo is still open and people like you are suddenly silent.
@mjkxxl Hmm, it took Bush what? 5 years to spend that much on a war which probably has stopped who knows how many more 9/11 like attacks on US soil?
Vs Obama, that's spent $1T in less, LESS than 1 year?
Sorry, pick another way to prove Obama isn't on track to make the money spent during all of Bush's presidency like pocket change.
@mjkxxl
Hmmm i smell the typical limp wristed beta male......its you!!!
@annonymiss Your funny! Who told gave you those numbers? A Conservative politician, (fake) news channel or some radio host? Did you actually read the budget? Grow up man.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/budget/tables.pdf
@annonymiss
Americans lost $14 trillion in asset values during the Bush years.
Comparing deficits alone is deceiving. Bush hide the costs of his actions very well, he didn't even include the costs of the Iraq War in his budgets; Obama included those costs in his budget as soon as he came into office.
Also, Bush had huge approval ratings during his first term, peaking at 80%; that means even Democrats gave him a chance. Bush was even re-elected to a second term. Obama on the other hand, wasn't in office more than 3 months before a cacophony of conservative partisans began calling for his head. In fact, he wasn't even in office when conservative birthers began attacking him with the allegation that he wasn't born in the U.S.
@nastro
Here's a little fact checking:
"1. $1.5 million in “free” stimulus money for a new wastewater treatment plant results in higher utility costs for residents of Perkins, Oklahoma."
1) They needed the new plant:
"Perkins uses a lagoon to get rid of sewage. The system is outdated and inefficient even for a town of 2,000 people."
2) Their utility costs were going to go up even without the stimulus:
"The estimated cost was $5 million. The city increased sewage taxes by 60% to cover the expense."
3) The increase was partly because the stimulus required them to buy steel from American companies instead of foreign companies. If you complain about borrowing money from China, then you certainly shouldn't be complaining about increased costs associated with buying steel from U.S. companies instead of sending stimulus funds to Chinese companies. Of course, we know that had the city been able to buy Chinese steel, thus lowering their costs, you would be complaining about how the funds are going to foreign countries.
"That's because under stimulus rules, all steel products must be American made."
4) The other part of the increase is that they had to pay prevailing wages to get the stimulus. Are you seriously complaining that blue collar workers get paid too much in this day and age, and should be earning less? I'm sure you'd be willing to take a pay cut to save the citizens of this town some cash, right?
"Seikel must also pay prevailing wages."
So because of the stimulus package, this city got a new wastewater treatment plant that was built completely from steel made in the U.S.A instead of steel made in a foreign country, that was built by blue collar workers that were getting paid a living wage instead of being forced to live paycheck to paycheck, and it cost them $1.5 million less than what it would have cost them to do both of these things without stimulus funds.
So tell me, which one of these things applies to you:
You think the President is stupid for requiring steel made in the U.S.A. (which creates jobs for Americans who will spend their job income in the U.S.A.) to be used instead of steel made in China (which does not create jobs for Americans, but does create jobs in China whose workers will not spend their job income in the U.S.A. but will spend it in China).
You think the President is stupid for requiring blue collar workers get paid a living wage, that wage getting put back into the economy anyways as these workers spend money on goods and services, much of it within the town itself.
You think the President is stupid for giving this small town any money/help so that they can pay blue collar workers a living wage to build the plant from American steel instead of not giving the city any money/help and leaving them to pay their blue collar workers meager wages to build the plant using steel made in a foreign country.
http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=10473671
It seems that you value paying the lowest price possible even if it means the jobs go overseas and the jobs that somehow can't be outsourced end up paying even lower wages. Congratulations, for the past decade or so you've been getting exactly what you want, and soon you will lose your job because of it (if you haven't already).
""Once we emerge from the immediate crisis, the long-term economic gains to communities that have been left behind in the digital age will be immeasurable," President Obama said in the announcement."
And when do you expect that to happen Barry? Many are expecting a double dip recession now. FootInMouth Biden said we'd be adding hundreds of thousands of jobs a month. Housing still sucks. Economy still sucks. Where are the jobs?
The Stimulus bill did next to nothing. It did what we said it would, create some TEMPORARY government jobs and well here we are. The money we dont have is drying up and now there is talks of even more spending.
Of course all that money will go directly into the pockets of the telco CEO's.
So what is next? The internet will become a "right"? Sorry, but thats bs. The internet is not a right and should never be a right.
And sorry, I dont see any justification to spend nearly another Trillion to "create" 5,000 jobs.
Spending more money that we dont have on bs porkulus garbage hasnt gotten us out of this mess so far, so why would any of these geniuses think spending a trillion or 2 more is going to help long term? Sure it might create a temporary false sense of security for some and perhaps make it seem like we may pull through this all the way, but in the long term its going to hurt us very, very badly.
And last I checked, this Admin has admitted that we should expect near double digit unemployment for a long time.
@KsE711
And FootInMouth Biden has also said we won't ever get back all of the lost jobs.
"White House pledges another $800 million for broadband stimulus."
and yet my only option for internet is $40 a month for 100 KB/s...
What a Deal! Each job is only costing us 1.4 MILLION DOLLARS EACH!
Wow, our government sure knows how to spend our money huh??!!!
How the typical parasite think - Oh lawwdddzz iz deserve free internet, health care, food stamps, a car and someone to pay my bills and if you refuse you are the typical tea bagger white male that wants to enslave me with your capitalism.
@nastro Don't forget consumer protections, workers comp, and minimum wage, must a military. Damn that socialism.
This topic needs 800 million posts. Come on people!
I'm glad our government has so much extra cash laying around...some of that money is mine dammit!
So, what happened to the previous billions of dollars that they need more money?
The US economy will freefall once they stop feeding it stimulus or when people stop lending to the US because they will never pay it back, all they are doing is delaying the inevitable.
I don't get why so many people are so against this? If everyone had a decent internet connection then right wing America could finally educate itself.........oh wait......you are right wing America.
@Dorminn
I believe you don't know your right from your left. That is OK, I am sure Obama will help those less educated, and give some good ol' stimulus money right to the Department of Education and keep that No Child Left Behind act chugging right along.
you keep safesearch on?
Good thing obama is spending all that money so you yanks (literally) have access to lady boy porn. You fuckers make me sick.
Dear government, please take my money and invade every aspect of my life. I, and the free market, aren't strong, brave or grown up enough to take care of ourselves.
One way or another, they'll get all of you on welfare soon enough.
Absolutely pathetic.