I never fully experienced the joy of eating shrimp until I lived in Florida.
Being a North Dakota girl, my shrimp choices had been limited to basket-fried, deep-fried, beer-batter fried or broiled in enough butter that it just as well could have been fried. In Florida, however, I found out how shrimp tasted when it was truly fresh: ecstasy, sheer ecstasy.
When I first moved to Colorado, I held out hope for fresh shrimp, but for naught. The shrimp available here has never been as succulent as Florida shrimp. In fact, I’ve determined that all shrimp should be bought from Rollo’s Fish Market in Milton (large or extra large, not de-veined but heads off), brought home, quickly de-veined and placed in boiling water with a bag of seasoning, and eaten (minus any condiments) just a few minutes after they turn the proper shade of pink.
The sad truth is I no longer live in Florida, Rollo’s may not even be in business today, and if I want to eat shrimp, I’m going to have to settle for the run-of-the-mill “flown in fresh daily” shrimp found here in Colorado.
Things change. I have to accept that and move on.
Where am I going with this? Well, its seems the Clinton administration keeps reminiscing about spectrum auctions the way I think about Florida shrimp.
The A- and B-block PCS spectrum auctions tasted so good-$7.7 billion good for the treasury by the time pioneer’s preference revenue was added. The C-block was supposed to have tasted even better at about $9 billion-before spectrum winners started declaring bankruptcy right and left.
As this column goes to press, the administration is floating the bright idea of forcing bankrupt NextWave Telecom Inc. to return its licenses to the government so those permits can be re-auctioned to help balance the budget. A couple different plans have been put forth (probably none of them will pass), and while the details may change, the goal is the same: Get back some of that spectrum money that tasted oh-so-sweet when it was new.
The irony is that while Congress debates the merits of trying to re-gain some of that lost PCS spectrum cash, the FCC is set to release its spectrum-management policy.
In truth, there is no such thing as federal spectrum policy. There may be general guides, and there may even be a document detailing the government’s spectrum policy. But those will always be thrown to the wind in exchange for an easy trip back to a time when a quick buck could be had from auctions.
The possibility of getting a couple billion dollars, or even $10 billion, for the government-without raising taxes, without cutting costs, without doing anything but changing the rules regarding how to license invisible airwaves-is just too beautiful to resist.
But while it’s OK to dream about something as simple as shrimp, it’s dangerous to let fond memories overpower federal policy.
