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Kerry on the Record: The Great ‘Digital Divide’ Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.comJohn Kerry is not swaggering around with a Palm Pilot on his belt like former candidate Al Gore, but he’s more than anxious to project the image of the hip, computer-savvy guy who wants to spread the miracle of high-speed Internet to the darkest corners of the country.
The problem is that President Bush has also been riding the Internet bandwagon, promising to provide universal access to high-speed Internet by 2007. To help reach that target, he will order federal agencies to make it easier for companies to deploy the service. Furthermore, he is pushing Congress to make access to broadband permanently tax-free.
Kerry has been left with little more to do than take occasional potshots at the way Bush is proceeding down the Cyber highway – such as attacking Bush for not making the tax ban a part of earlier tax cut packages he offered. Trying to keep Bush from stealing all the thunder, the Massachusetts senator is also pushing a bill already pending in Congress aimed at helping deploy broadband to underserved areas. “The Bush broadband policies don’t do anything to provide the new resources that will be needed to deploy broadband in rural and urban areas and they are not addressing the regulatory barriers that prevent deployment,” explained a Kerry campaign spokesperson. 'Universal Service' Part of the Kerry plan will likely include defining broadband as a universal service, a government program that helps funnel funds to subsidize service in low-income and expensive rural areas. But adding high-speed Internet access to that category would be a potentially expensive way of expanding broadband investment, say detractors. Meanwhile, the record shows that Kerry is a member of the Congressional Internet Caucus, a bipartisan group of over 150 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet. The Caucus also encourages members to utilize the Internet in communications with constituents and supports efforts to put more government documents online. The Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and the Internet Education Foundation host regular events and forums for policymakers, the press, and the public to discuss important Internet-related policy issues. However, when the Senate voted recently to restore a ban on taxing Internet connections for four years -- stopping short of the permanent ban approved by the House, Kerry was one of only four senators who missed the vote. Back in October 1998 when Kerry did answer the roll, he voted against allowing states to require companies who do business in their state solely by phone, mail, or the Internet to collect state sales taxes. In 1996, Kerry voted Yes on telecomm deregulation. Competing for Techie Support For sure, the candidates’ stances on tech issues are hardly going to be the fulcrum upon which the election in November turns, but there a lot of cool voters out there in techie world and the guys with the deep pockets are -- to be sure -- plugged in to the issue. Some of those coveted high-tech executives are backing George Bush’s re-election, figuring that Bush’s policies would be better for their businesses -- and therefore the country -- than what Democrat John Kerry proposes:
But Kerry has hardly struck out with the techies, attracting the backing of top executives of Google, E-Loan and Yahoo – all of whom have endorsed him for president. And Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks, has given about $1 million to independent liberal political groups moving to defeating Bush in November. However, the Bush camp has corralled the really big guy – Microsoft’s Bill Gates, who was savaged by the Clinton Justice Department and swayed by the skeptical Bush who signaled his distaste for the federal government’s antitrust case against Microsoft when he said he stood “on the side of innovation, not litigation.” Sure enough during Bush’s first year in office, the feds agreed to settle the case with Microsoft. Cachet Not to be outdone, Kerry has reportedly tapped Apple CEO Steve Jobs as an informal advisor on technology issues. “Jobs is the man” in technology, Antony McShane, a Chicago-based intellectual property (IP) and technology attorney recently told MacNewsWorld, adding that the CEO’s addition to the Kerry campaign could add some needed cachet in this arena. In the meantime, however, it may the High Court rather than either candidate that will decide if the poor folks stranded in the countryside get to rapidly download. In a recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said that states can bar cities and local governments from offering their own communications services. About 150 local governments have built telecom networks -- many are electric utilities based in rural areas, where local phone companies provide no — or limited — broadband service. Although these municipal governments are filling a need that the private sector isn't, the Court apparently buys the argument from the phone companies that they should not have to compete with the governments that regulate them. Because cities have no inherent federal right to provide telecommunications service, only states can grant or rescind that permission, the Court said. The upshot: Ruling could narrow phone and high-speed Internet choices for rural residents, ‘The Digital Divide’ From the Senate floor Kerry has said: “[A]ffordable high-speed Internet access is becoming an important national economic necessity. In order for our businesses – from the largest to the smallest – to sell products and services on-line, they all need to be able to reach more people faster through the Internet. “Businesses located outside of urban centers – the only place where broadband is widely deployed – are losing out. “Consumers, too, face this same type of digital divide. In order to benefit from the often lower costs of purchasing products over the Internet, consumers need to be able to complete their purchases with confidence that their transactions will be completed quickly and correctly. This is the commercial aspect of the digital divide. “I am proud to have worked closely with Senator Rockefeller and Senator Snowe to introduce legislation that would address the critical problem of connecting businesses and homes in high-poverty areas of cities to the Internet by creating a tax credit for companies that deploy high-speed…”
Part 1: POWs and MIAs
Editor's note:
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