So I took up David Weigel‘s challenge in Slate: Read the Reid Plan. Read the Boehner Plan. Get Back to Me… and got as far as this stuff in Reid’s plan:
(Sorry, I had to take a screen shot because the original is a .pdf and the copied text takes too much work to fix.)
So I’m wondering why… let’s see… Pages 46 to 82 — out of a 104-page document — are devoted to this stuff. I really don’t know, although I’m guessing it’s good for Verizon, AT&T and other bidders on that spectrum.
There’s plenty of coverage, of course. Here’s a list, some ranging a bit from the budget fracas, but perhaps illuminating the politics of spectrum, and why it’s in the middle of this thing:
- Why spectrum debate is tied to debt ceiling plan news.cnet.com)
- The Reid Plan Includes a Catfood Commission news.firedoglake.com)
- Group: Spectrum Plan Could Shut Down TV Stations pcworld.com)
- How the New Spectrum Bill Would Harm the Tech Community politics.slashdot.org)
- CBO Predicts Less Deficit Savings For Senate Spectrum Bill Than Predicted techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)
- Telecom Firms: Don’t Pay Down Deficit With USF techdailydose.nationaljournal.com)
- Spectrum reform, public safety network move forward in Senate news.cnet.com)
- What’s The Plan? andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
- GOP Spectrum Bill Could Get Drawn Into Debt Fracas paidcontent.org)
- Dueling debt plans: How they compare cbsnews.com)
- Debt Plan Gimmicks Are Go! reason.com)
- Congress goes after unlicensed wireless “free riders” (like Google and Microsoft) arstechnica.com)
- GOP Spectrum Bill Could Get Drawn Into Debt Fracas paidcontent.org)
- Congress goes after unlicensed wireless “free riders” (like Google and Microsoft) arstechnica.com)
- Why spectrum debate is tied to debt ceiling plan news.cnet.com)
The Boehner plan is utterly opaque to me, at least at this point. But maybe that’s because this spectrum thing stands out so obviously in the Reid plan, and spectrum is a subject I know a few things about. I’m opposed to selling any of it, and think we need to get past spectrum alone as a way to understand radio waves and how they work (especially when we sell off rights to use them… it’s like selling the color blue. I’m also big on open spectrum and unlicensed wireless, but no BigCo wants either, so those aren’t on the table, even though they’re already proven sources of economic benefits. By the way, whatever happened to “the public airwaves”? Remember those?
What do the rest of ya’ll think?