What Did 'Broadband Czar' Harris Do With the $40 Billion Appropriated for Internet?

So what you are saying is that a program to build fiber out to rural communities that's on track and on time and will last for decades to come and owned by the government is bad because it's not being built as fast as they would like. I don't see any heat here just manufactured blame. Originally Posted by txdot-guy

No. i'm saying Harris was given a worthless political role/title by Biden that was intended to make it "look like" she was accomplishing something, in this case, internet access that hasn't accomplished anything in nearly four years yet the liberal media are hailing as an "accomplishment".

do you think this cunt Harris even attended any planning meetings on this? not a chance in Hell she had any direct involvement. she couldn't understand any of it anyway even at the highest minimum level.

and any talk the project is "on track" is nonsense. if some CEO wanted to build a new headquarters and 4 years later they hadn't even broken ground on construction would be fired.

and it's proof that Ronald Reagan's 9 "dirty words" are still true today ...

"I'm from the Government and i'm here to help".

mark Ronnie's words as an axiom and watch the progress over 10 years. if they get 1/10th of it done in ten years they'll be lucky. in fact, it has the high possibility of becoming another "Democrat Solyndra"

To say Harris hasn't even attended meetings is just your narrative and ignorance. She doesn't need to be in every meeting with engineers, planners, contractors, suppliers, etc. As a software engineer myself the CEO/CTO doesn't sit in every meeting about day to day coding. We give them biweekly or monthly updates on progress, needs, problems, etc.

All 56 states and territories had to submit proposals by a deadline and these were all met. I imagine these proposals took months of research. Then it took months to go through all the proposals to total up costs and allocate funding as needed.

It's been a little less than 3 years since the bill was passed, during the pandemic. Over 60,000 projects have been greenlighted from the bill so far, these all took time to process. Probably a lot of the same people were involved in the proposals from each state for the internet.

Many rural communities already have some sort of internet if they want it so they aren't totally cut off. The goal is affordable high speed internet. Starlink is good, but a basic plan is like 120 bucks a month for really slow download speeds by today's standards. Starlink Priority product doubles that speed, and is capped monthly before it goes back to standard. Priority is between 140 and 500 a month depending on how much data you buy before it hits the cap and goes back down to priority. Not exactly affordable...

I know when Google Fiber was announced for the KC area it was over 3 years to get completed in one part of the metro area. That is in a part of the metro area around 400 square miles. All with plenty of local labor, cable, equipment on site. Compare this to running cable and equipment 100s of miles into middle of nowhere. Where every day workers will have to travel to the job site and back. Logistics nightmare....

I think it is a lofty goal even to get this all done in the next 5 years knowing it took 3 years in one part of the KC metro area for Google Fiber rollout.

and it's proof that Ronald Reagan's 9 "dirty words" are still true today ...

"I'm from the Government and i'm here to help".

mark Ronnie's words as an axiom and watch the progress over 10 years. if they get 1/10th of it done in ten years they'll be lucky. in fact, it has the high possibility of becoming another "Democrat Solyndra" Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid

I’ll be the first to admit that government is not as efficient as it could be but Reagan’s axiom as you put it is definitely not true. After disasters the government response is almost always welcomed. Whether in the form of the national guard, rescue workers, fire and police response, housing assistance, or federal insurance payments.

Not to mention the programs that would never get done without government assistance.

Like the manhattan project, nasa, the heavy press program, mine safety, aeronautics, gps, the internet, telephony, the nuclear industry, the federal highway system. I could go on.

Vilifying government seems to be a national pastime for some but in my opinion we need better government not less government.

... WHERE'S THE MONEY?!!

### Salty

Allocated to the states/territories per the needs of each based on their proposals. It is now up to each state to get it all done.

I’ll be the first to admit that government is not as efficient as it could be but Reagan’s axiom as you put it is definitely not true. After disasters the government response is almost always welcomed. Whether in the form of the national guard, rescue workers, fire and police response, housing assistance, or federal insurance payments.

Not to mention the programs that would never get done without government assistance.

Like the manhattan project, nasa, the heavy press program, mine safety, aeronautics, gps, the internet, telephony, the nuclear industry, the federal highway system. I could go on.

Vilifying government seems to be a national pastime for some but in my opinion we need better government not less government. Originally Posted by txdot-guy

that wasn't Reagan's point. his point is what you said above. the Government is the problem of America. yes our own Government is ruining this country. they are the ones driving the 37 Trillion debt and growing. at least half of the overall Government workforce is redundant and should be fired.


do you think the founding fathers would approve of the huge Federal bureaucracy we have today? of course not. America is not a democracy. it's a Federal Republic. they did this to prevent exactly what over several hundred years did happen .. the Federal Government has become a bloated overbearing monstrosity and if the founding fathers were alive today they'd start a revolution against the US Government rather than King George.

Allocated to the states/territories per the needs of each based on their proposals. It is now up to each state to get it all done. Originally Posted by royamcr

interesting. so it took them 3 plus years to simply allocate money to states. if that's all they had to do .. and it was .. why did it take nearly 4 years to happen?


pretty sure you don't realize you are proving my point and this thread's topic ...

the Government can't do shit in any reasonable time-frame if they tried. for once.

... WHERE'S THE MONEY?!!

### Salty Originally Posted by Salty Again

the Fed Reserve hasn't printed it yet.


bahahahahaaa

It's not nearly 4 years. It is under 3 years. States/territories had to do proposals after a long process of evaluating needs and cost estimates. They probably had to get costs from multiple contractors and equipment suppliers before making their final proposals. Documents like the following and many others like it took months to create and revise before any of this happened.

https://www.rd.usda.gov/media/file/d...es-2222024.pdf

Quit be childish acting like these projects are like whipping up a home network or even a small office network. This is big time stuff requiring 100s of miles of digging or cable hanging along existing poles. Related weatherproof equipment installations have to be done.

It's not nearly 4 years. It is under 3 years. States/territories had to do proposals after a long process of evaluating needs and cost estimates. They probably had to get costs from multiple contractors and equipment suppliers before making their final proposals. Documents like the following and many others like it took months to create and revise before any of this happened.

https://www.rd.usda.gov/media/file/d...es-2222024.pdf Originally Posted by royamcr

so it took the Government 3 and a half years to write one document? one document .. before any of this could start? your "proof" IS proof the Government is incompetent.


the interwebs have been around since the 90's. companies have been doing this for decades. it's not some mystery to figure out.

so it took the Government 3 and a half years to write one document? one document .. before any of this could start? your "proof" IS proof the Government is incompetent.


the interwebs have been around since the 90's. companies have been doing this for decades. it's not some mystery to figure out. Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid

I think that you are talking out your ass on this one. Any time anybody has to do something new it always takes time. Planning, finding contractors, filing the paperwork, holding open meetings, etc.etc. The larger the project the more time it will take you.

The federal government is just making the funding available under certain conditions. It’s up to the states to actually implement it. If there is a delay it’s likely there.

I think that you are talking out your ass on this one. Any time anybody has to do something new it always takes time. Planning, finding contractors, filing the paperwork, holding open meetings, etc.etc. The larger the project the more time it will take you.

The federal government is just making the funding available under certain conditions. It’s up to the states to actually implement it. If there is a delay it’s likely there. Originally Posted by txdot-guy

so now the delay is the inefficient State's government's fault? isn't that proving Government in general is inefficient? State AND Federal?

you guys are thrashing about trying to justify a stalled project simply because Biden pushed it and Harris was "supposed" to be in charge. if a Republican admin had done this and 4 years later had ZERO to show for it you'd scream bloody murder about it.

the internet has been around for 40 years. there's no mystery about how to create the infrastructure for access.


the delay is the Federal Government's typical idiotic regulations and overbearing criteria for any bids to do the actual work.

so now the delay is the inefficient State's government's fault? isn't that proving Government in general is inefficient? State AND Federal?

you guys are thrashing about trying to justify a stalled project simply because Biden pushed it and Harris was "supposed" to be in charge. if a Republican admin had done this and 4 years later had ZERO to show for it you'd scream bloody murder about it. Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid

I’m pushing the project for all the reasons that I talked about in an earlier post. The government should have been pushing metro fiber and the rural fiber since the beginning of the internet. The reason we haven’t is because Cable and Telco corporations went batshit crazy at the very thought of it.

Now the government is pushing the rural fiber program because Private Companies have failed spectacularly at bringing it to fruition. You think government is taking too long, Private industry just refuses to do it at all and sues the government or lobbyists scuttled it when local municipalities tried to do it on their own.

People should quit their bitching and just say thank you.

I’m pushing the project for all the reasons that I talked about in an earlier post. The government should have been pushing metro fiber and the rural fiber since the beginning of the internet. The reason we haven’t is because Cable and Telco corporations went batshit crazy at the very thought of it.

Now the government is pushing the rural fiber program because Private Companies have failed spectacularly at bringing it to fruition. You think government is taking too long, Private industry just refuses to do it at all and sues the government or lobbyists scuttled it when local municipalities tried to do it on their own.

People should quit their bitching and just say thank you. Originally Posted by txdot-guy

completely wrong. first you are saying the Government should have taken control of rolling out infrastructure from the beginning? there wouldn't be the internet we have today if that had happened.


private companies "failed spectacularly"? at what? dumping money into providing access that would take decades to pay off? that's not how capitalism works.


if this is such a big issue .. it's not a big issue .. then your beloved Government should have done something decades ago regardless of which party was in the White House.


all this is .. is a classic example of Democrats wasting billions on a non-issue for their own political aggrandizement

so it took the Government 3 and a half years to write one document? one document .. before any of this could start? your "proof" IS proof the Government is incompetent.




the interwebs have been around since the 90's. companies have been doing this for decades. it's not some mystery to figure out. Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid

Dude don't be ridiculous, there are many documents that is just an example. RFPs can take months Then the proposals have to be gone through. Not just one, 56 of them. It's plainly obvious that things are moving, someone didn't just pocket the money like this thread insinuates. I'm pretty sure with all this work done the projects are ready to start soon.

... WHERE'S THE MONEY?!!

### Salty Originally Posted by Salty Again

Trump stole it.

(Ask a silly question …)

completely wrong. first you are saying the Government should have taken control of rolling out infrastructure from the beginning? there wouldn't be the internet we have today if that had happened.


private companies "failed spectacularly"? at what? dumping money into providing access that would take decades to pay off? that's not how capitalism works.


if this is such a big issue .. it's not a big issue .. then your beloved Government should have done something decades ago regardless of which party was in the White House.


all this is .. is a classic example of Democrats wasting billions on a non-issue for their own political aggrandizement Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid

The internet is government built.

Most of these rural communities have had internet access for as long as they want through telephone lines. So in the last 5-10 years high speed internet access has become more important than it was early on due to streaming of content. Private companies aren't interested in high speed internet (affordable) in small rural markets due to costs. This is where the government is covering the gap in costs to get the rest of America up to speed.