The National Broadband Plan Is Bad. Period.

I’ve seen plenty of stories and gotten a fair number of calls from reporters about the national broadband plan. They generally want to get some insight from down in the weeds of the communications world. What do you think of this part? What do you think of that?


But I’m keeping my eye on the ball: This is another industrial‐​policy boondoggle. It’s a government spending program, created by the so‐​called “Recovery Act,” that will distort the communications marketplace, and it comes at the cost to taxpayers of having their resources taken from them and handed out to the firms that are best equipped to lobby for government succor.


I don’t care which community gets 1‑gigabit connections. The money to pay for it should have been left with the American people to spend as they choose—on 1‑gigabit connections if they choose. The debt overhang produced by all this spending makes us worse off, not better off, and the shiny bauble of hi‐​def, two‐​way video doesn’t change that.


The Federal Communications Commission should be shuttered. That’s the gist of what I have to say about the “National Broadband Plan.”