Critics already call the free government cell phone plan the Obama Phone. If this new proposal is enacted, we predict it won’t be long until they start talking about Obama Net. We think it’s a name the President should embrace, because we fully support the program.
White House spokespeople say the President’s ConnectEd program (which, in our opinion, doesn’t sound as good as Obama Net) could well be one of the landmark achievements of President Obama’s final years in office.
The President wants to increase user fees on cell phone subscribers. He would then use those fees to expand broadband internet access in schools across America. If it all works as planned, students and teachers would be able to use their laptops and iPads on campus.
According to NewsMax.com, “ConnectEd would have a price tag estimated at $4 billion to $6 billion, which would work to about a $12 spread out over three years for every cell phone user.” What would Americans get for their money? It’s estimated that high-speed broadband and wireless access would be extended to 99% of the nation’s schools within five years.
The plan has “a lot of the characteristics of big-vision policy that you really don’t get through legislation anymore” according to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors.
Of course, the fees need to be blessed by the Federal Communications Commission, but the administration doesn’t think that will be a problem. The FCC sets the universal access fee, the source of funds for free government cell phones, and if passed, for Obama Net.
President Obama may authorize the program via an executive order. However, in today’s cost-cutting atmosphere in Washington, DC, President Obama’s team worries that authorizing ConnectEd via an EO might be interpreted as an attempt to sidestep Congress.
In addition, Obama may face opposition at the FCC. Ajit Pai, one of five current Commissioners, has already come out against increasing fees to pay for ConnectEd. “We shouldn’t force schools to skew their spending decisions in order to help us meet an arbitrary national target,” he noted in a recent speech.
Despite Pai’s opposition, it looks like President Obama is going to move forward with ConnectEd. According to the Washington Post, a White House spokesman said, “We are here to do big things — and we can do this without Congress.”
We’re behind you all the way, President Obama. Expanding internet access — and eliminating the digital divide between rich and poor — is one of the most important issues of the day.
You call it ConnectEd and your opponents will call it Obama Net, but we call it vital.
C.Wright says
This Sucks. Just keep robbing working people and giving their money to the poor. Typical Obama bullshit! The entitlement state lives!! BTW: I’m not a republican,