infobong.com

Earlier today, I was at the gym, watching President Bush speak in Albuquerque on CNN. At first, the speech was the usual laundry list of big-business handouts that masquerade as an economic policy these days, but he turned to a topic particularly interesting to me:

I can't argue with that. (OK, I guess I'd contend that he treats the technology as a panacea for larger issues of literacy and cultural access.) Hmmm, but maybe this is just a handout to established carriers?

Universal access to broadband? Presuming he means universal access to broadband in the same sense as "universal access" to POTS, he's advocating some crazy regulatoriness. But what's even crazier is that I actually agree with the president on something for once. I find it a little hard to see this as a handout to the incumbent broadband players, when he's advocating competition in the market, especially in light of the DC Circuit's ruling this month lifting rules requiring carriers to share lines with competitors. But there is a little catch,

Its seems a reasonable trade-off to give broadband carriers tax break if the government will compel them to wire poor, remote areas like Farmington, but the tax-breaks should be temporary, so the big, rich carriers don't get a long-term handout.