Lawmakers criticized FCC for something that was decided by Congress, chair says.
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FCC chair defends broadband discounts for poor people against Republican attack
- Thread starter JournalBot
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What is it with Republicans that they continue the war on the poor???? Pulling up your bootstraps doesn't happen overnight. Food, water, housing, education, and communications are basic necessities to survive. They're stuck with this false scare tactic of the 80's version of the welfare queen. Single black women who were popping out kids to receive checks from the government. That idea proved to be such a low percentage of the poors that it remains laughable. People need help, plain and simple. They don't want to raise minimum wage and not every state has raised theirs. Especially in the Red states.
Currently, 30 states and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Five states have not adopted a state minimum wage: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Two states, Georgia and Wyoming, have a minimum wage below $7.25 per hour.
But hey, keep them as wage slaves and they can't better their lives. Plus they'll keep voting red.
Currently, 30 states and Washington, D.C., have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Five states have not adopted a state minimum wage: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Two states, Georgia and Wyoming, have a minimum wage below $7.25 per hour.
But hey, keep them as wage slaves and they can't better their lives. Plus they'll keep voting red.
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It's easier to blame your problems on somebody else than to address the root cause.
More satisfying, too (in the short term).
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"Misleading!" As in, only 22 million instead of 25 million. Yeah, much better! Nothing to worry about.
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Just to maintain some perspective: the US provides $646 billion in subsidies, every year, to multi-billion-dollar fossil fuel companies. And globally that number is $5.4 trillion.
But hey, we can't afford $30 to help people get on the internet, because that costs too much.
https://www.budget.senate.gov/chair...fuel-subsidies-we-are-subsidizing-the-danger-
And to drive the point home, today Exxon Mobil has a market cap of $385 Billion, with $33 Billion cash-on-hand. And those are the guys who do deserve our taxpayer dollars, according to rich people in Washington. Seriously, WTF?
https://companiesmarketcap.com/exxon-mobil/cash-on-hand/
But hey, we can't afford $30 to help people get on the internet, because that costs too much.
https://www.budget.senate.gov/chair...fuel-subsidies-we-are-subsidizing-the-danger-
And to drive the point home, today Exxon Mobil has a market cap of $385 Billion, with $33 Billion cash-on-hand. And those are the guys who do deserve our taxpayer dollars, according to rich people in Washington. Seriously, WTF?
https://companiesmarketcap.com/exxon-mobil/cash-on-hand/
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"The upper class: keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class: pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there...just to scare the shit out of the middle class." - George Carlin
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How else are those executives going to receive multi-million dollar bonuses every year??? And won't someone think of the shareholders? ie. members of Congress....
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I would love to see a breakdown of ACP funds received by congressional district. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if this move ended up hurting their constituents more than the ones they think they're hurting.
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It's a totally disingenuous argument. They are saying they won't lose broadband because they will find the money to get it, since they had it before hand. Yeah that is probably true...same could be said of food stamps. Will the internet be as fast? What did they have to give up to get it? New shoes? Clothes?
This really is a Fox news level the poor have refrigerators type argument and it is bad for our country. The less we take care of the poor....especially the working poor, the more we have crime, drugs, and violence. People need hope and a trajectory out of their bad situations. This is a decent if not perfect way to do it, and I bet if we look at the ROI in GDP growth over the next 10 years based on education and food security it pays off.
Just a bad look for Republicans that they somehow talk their GOP side into thinking is defending their tax dollars when it is really just a way to invest that money poorly by dumping it into military contractors pockets.
This really is a Fox news level the poor have refrigerators type argument and it is bad for our country. The less we take care of the poor....especially the working poor, the more we have crime, drugs, and violence. People need hope and a trajectory out of their bad situations. This is a decent if not perfect way to do it, and I bet if we look at the ROI in GDP growth over the next 10 years based on education and food security it pays off.
Just a bad look for Republicans that they somehow talk their GOP side into thinking is defending their tax dollars when it is really just a way to invest that money poorly by dumping it into military contractors pockets.
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Republicans are the biggest Socialists ever. When it comes to giving handouts to the rich and corporations.
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Just speaking fom the UK here but you Americans are getting totally ripped off on your broadban costs anyway - we can get 150gb speeds (full fiber optic cable to your door) for, with a wi-fi 6 router for £20 a month on an 18 month contract = $25 a month - let that sink in. Everyone there should be paying less.
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Someone point this out to Dark Brandon's social media and campaign teams.
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Oh, it'll definitely hurt their constituents. However, it'll help with their campaign financing and their constituents are more concerned with fucking over immigrants, minorities, and women than their own wellbeing, so the politicians know this won't hurt their reelection chances.
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As a Texan I would like to once again apologize for Senator Ted Cruz. I was frankly hoping that he would get lost in Cancun.
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"and has been an important part of our efforts to help close the digital divide nationwide," she wrote."
Saddly they are keen on the divide, physical, digital and in any possible way the same. Such petition is arriving on def ears.
Saddly they are keen on the divide, physical, digital and in any possible way the same. Such petition is arriving on def ears.
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Was about to post about the cost of an F35 and the total over the life of the program but you’ve done the equivalent in petrol. Cheers.
(Ok I give in, something like 1.7t program, $109m per plane, currently 450 fielded. But fuck poor people and Internet cause yellow pages are fine.)
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I agree. Subsidies aren't the solution to the root problem. But ripping off the Band-Aid of subsidies is not the solution when the root problem will never be addressed.
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Having several teenagers who are on the job market hunt or just finished up...
You cannot get a job without an internet connection in this era. Nobody takes paper resumes in and asks to see the manager... unless you want to be on the weirdos not-to-be-hired list!
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You used to have to muffle it, but now it's publicly acceptable to just bellow it out. It helps the campaign.
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Sorry but I think you need to clarify your units here.
150Gbit/sec speed is not a thing in domestic broadband, and certainly not for £20/month. It would also be utterly pointless given how rare wired networking is and how wifi can't use that bandwidth.
1Gbit/sec FTTP is a thing, but only recently for that sort of price. Is that what you mean?
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Don’t confuse Republicans with facts. Like the FACT that Congress authorized this. If they want it ended, they can pass legislation to do so.
Oh wait. This is an election year so they can’t actually vote to take a program away from poor people. So they’ll just complain about a federal administrative body doing what Congress told it to do.
F-ing Republicans and their red meat theater.
Oh wait. This is an election year so they can’t actually vote to take a program away from poor people. So they’ll just complain about a federal administrative body doing what Congress told it to do.
F-ing Republicans and their red meat theater.
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From their perspective, I bet they are hoping to have it both ways.
Since the program is sunsetting due to lack of funding (caused by lack of Republican support), they will probably attack the FCC for wasting money, and then when they are at their home districts campaigning, they will attack the Biden admin for taking away their constituents' internet subsidy.
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See, I don't have a problem with forgiving student loan debt. Most other developed economies have much greater government subsidies of higher education, which results in more a more educated labor force not saddled by crippling debt. I don't think it's a bad thing if we don't handicap our own graduates relative to the rest of the developed world.
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JoeDeveloper
Ars Centurion
After 8+ years of trumpo and his Republican cult dumbfuckery, all I can give them is:
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See "ACP funds received by congressional district" here: https://www.usac.org/about/affordable-connectivity-program/acp-enrollment-and-claims-tracker/
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the GOP doesn't let anything as trivial as facts keep it from a good unhinged narrative
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The whole idea of "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps" is flawed in the first place, and we should stop accepting it as an aspirational catch phrase. It's that myth that a person (I suppose the far right would insist that should be phrased "a man") can be an island unto themselves, independent and free, with zero dependencies, and improve themselves into wealth with no help whatsoever.
But that is just the moral equivalent of believing that a perpetual motion machine can exist. You literally cannot lift your body off the ground in a sustainable way, by pulling your own bootstraps. The "self-sufficient" man in a cabin in the wilderness was dependent on everything from a heat source and building materials to available food, plus the required education to make all that into useful stuff. For anyone actually participating in an economy, money doesn't show up just because you brute force harder with your muscles, especially not in the Information Age. Other inputs are needed, just as in a real motion machine (engine), like fuel and air. For a person wanting to better themselves in a modern economy, they need some non-free inputs like access to housing, food, energy, education, health care, transportation, and access to the Internet.
Another way to look at that last list: If some right wing nut thinks we should not be providing those things to allow people to improve themselves, then if you deprive a normal small business owner of any of those things, can they sustain a normal business, or even complete a simple business trip?
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Wtf people. That $30 isn't probably much to many of us on here, but for those who are on this type of program, that can get them something. The internet should be a public utility in today's age.
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That entirely depends on the job. You wouldn't be able to interview at my company without access to the internet.
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Hate to break it to you but you're already funding a lot of bad decisions, but they're not the ones you think and they cost a hell of a lot more than what you're talking about.
Fact is, forgiving student loan debt would make a lot of working class people's lives better and would also immediately stimulate the economy as people use that money to buy goods and services instead of enriching banks.
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The income bar for this program is so low its really tragic to see it entails 25 million households. This is a subsidy for an absolutely critical service to the absolute poorest. Im all for fiscal responsibility but the pennies saved here will surely cost more in the long run, and theres literally billions to be saved elsewhere from pork programs that benefit the wealthy. Screw these people, their dishonesty and their heartlessness.
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