Just a month or so into the job, President Bush has gone to great pains to convince us the “Digital Divide” is some cockamamie liberal concept unworthy of government support. George W. hasn’t exactly said as much, but his actions speak volumes.
As part of his tax cut-centric budget plan, the Bush administration wants to:
Overhaul a stable E-rate program that provides discount Internet connections to schools and libraries at an annual cost of $2.25 billion to wireline and wireless carriers.
Slash spending on the Commerce Department’s Technology Opportunity Program from $42.5 million to $15 million and eliminate the agency’s Advanced Technology Program.
Defund the Rural Telephone Bank, a public-private entity overseen by the Department of Agriculture that offers low-interest loans to wireline and wireless telecom service providers.
E-rate, a provision of the 1996 telecom act, and TOP got off the ground in the Clinton administration. The other government tech programs under attack by Bush got their starts in an earlier era. Indeed, ATP was launched in Papa Bush’s administration.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), new chairman of the House telecom subcommittee, recently wrote White House budget chief Mitchell Daniels Jr. to express “alarm and deep dismay” about Bush’s plan to reduce funding for innovative tech programs at Commerce that promote education and health care in rural and urban areas alike.
All told, Bush’s moves don’t fair well in fiscal and political cost-benefit analyses.
First, the president could face a backlash from rural lawmakers whose constituencies carried Bush to victory in Election 2000. The proposals call into question Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” and his promise not to leave any child behind.
But there’s a bigger, more fundamental, point to be made here: America’s technological leadership. Bush is sending the wrong signals. Tax-cuts and lower interest rates are nice temporary fixes for the ailing economy, but technological innovation is the long-term engine of growth and productivity. Government programs that subsidize corporate high-tech development are not necessarily bad, when you consider that Europe and Asia are relying on unabashed industrial policy to overtake the U.S. in global economy.
For all the jokes about inventing the Internet, former Vice President Al Gore contributed mightily through his enthusiasm and intellectual embrace of digital technology’s revolutionary potential. Suspecting next-generation mobile phone technology might be the key to unlocking the power of the next-generation Internet, Clinton-Gore gave 3G top billing.
Does Bush get any of this?
