'ObamaNet' Is Here! Meet 'Connect Home' The 'Free Internet' That Will Cost Taxpayers More Than Regular Internet

weaselzippers

But, it’s for the children!!

Via PJ Media:

On July 15 in Durant, Oklahoma, President Obama announced ConnectHome, describing it as:

… a new initiative with communities, the private sector, and federal government to expand high speed broadband to more families across the country.

ConnectHome is aimed at low-income areas with little broadband uptake, expanding several earlier federal programs. The headlines are about connecting the poor to the modern convenience of the internet, but they don’t mention who’s paying for it. As with most federal programs, you are.

Is ConnectHome worth the costs, and what are they?

So far, the ConnectHome website is thin on details. (It’s even thinner on purchase options; more about that in a moment.) The White House announcement states only that ConnectHome will be grant-funded, to the tune of $150 million. However, there is nothing on how the grants themselves will be funded. I presume that new or redirected HUD grants, rather than FCC-mandated taxes, are a possibility. The announcement says little about how these grants will be administered and spent, other than via EveryoneOn and US Ignite (more about those entities below).

How have existing programs worked? Some digging is required for the answer. Connect America (sort of the larger program including ConnectHome) claims:

Since 2009, the President has been delivering on a comprehensive plan to connect America — from our schools, to our homes, to our businesses. Federal government investments have led to the deployment or upgrading of well over 100,000 miles of network infrastructure, while 45 million additional Americans have adopted broadband.

This statement assumes (1) the Federal government participated, (2) positively, in what was (3) almost solely capital expenditures by the private sector that (4) encouraged broadband adoption — the sort of Federal credit-grabbing familiar to readers of this site.

Broadband construction is subsidized by you, though. Here’s a quick précis of the tangled web of Internet construction subsidies that hide the real costs from taxpayers and consumers. (Skip ahead if Federal buzzword bingo gives you a headache.)

Keep reading…

 Thank You PJ Media and Nick.

Can you smell the 'Fairness Doctrine' on the barbecue here?

This is going to cost us a hell of a lot more than money.