https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/31/tech/fcc-affordable-connectivity-program-acp-close/index.html

Direct Quote from the article above:

On Friday, the US government announced the final closure of the broadly popular federal program, which has helped tens of millions of households afford internet service, after Republicans in Congress ignored calls by consumer advocates and Democratic lawmakers to approve more funding this spring. The program’s lapse threatens to throw nearly 60 million Americans into financial distress, CNN has reported.

For several years, the federal government has subsidized internet access to millions of Americans, almost 60 million of them. It was a very successful program because access to the internet is a “production good.” If you don’t remember you college economics or never had it, a production good is something you can buy that increases your output. Before the age of the computer that would have been a car (so you could go to work) or a typewriter (for filing applications and sending cover letters or working from home). Internet access allows you to apply for jobs or government benefits, communicate with your employer and learn the rules and regulations in countless fields. It is quite difficult to successfully apply for a job without an active internet connection.

Then why did the Republicans not fund it? I think it is safe to say that philosophically Republicans believe that the government cannot successfully do anything. Perhaps when subsidizing highly profitable industries, they see an exception but not very often. There is also the factor that this assists people of the lower and lower middle class incomes, and they feel a strong need to make these people suffer so they will “learn to achieve like the rest of us.”

If you have been following the news these last few weeks you may have observed that they were also busy browbeating University Presidents, Merrick Garland and the former Surgeon General. This kind of grandstanding takes the place of governing in their minds. Performing important government functions doesn’t get your name mentioned favorably on America’s numerous hate radio stations where every kind of nonsense is spouted as if it were the wisdom of the ages. Our alternate media sources do not find achievement and action on behalf of the public to be compelling topics. It doesn’t push the big topics of the deep state or the coming civil war, so we have a political party basically devoted to inaction and publicity stunts. This is called nihilism.

It was a good program, a successful program that helped millions of Americans go to school, get jobs, maintain employment and learn important skills. It wasn’t very much money and it made a lot of difference but that kind of governing is out of style. Sabotage and inaction are the tools in use here. If we can make the government not work, we can hurt the current administration. The public be damned.

It is ethically wrong, morally bankrupt and a failure of business ethics. But screwing over people while owning the libs is a value among Republicans more valuable than diamonds and gold. So, some teenager having difficulty applying to college because he has no internet access is just another victory over those people who practice compassion and making them suffer is the most important thing in the world.

James Pilant