Republicans slam broadband discounts for poor people, threaten to kill program | Ars Technica
Thune, Cruz complain that $30 discounts go to people who "already had broadband."
And pull themselves up by their bootstraps as usual?
Imagine living in the 2020's in the developed world and not realizing that internet access is a basic necessity.
Then imagine being the sort of person who would deny poor people basic necessities
They know full well that internet is a necessity to participate in society.
That is why they are blocking it with every fibre of their being.
To them, poor people are poor because god is angry at them. They deserve to be poor.
It's not that nefarious, it's more "we're a bunch of wealthy assholes and we know the best way to make the most money without having to actually make something worth a shit is to privatize necessities and then monopolize them. You literally need to buy from me! Also, you lot don't work hard enough."
I hate these people with every fiber of my being.
basic necessity
Did you misspell guaranteed revenue? They know exactly what they were doing.
Imagine living in the 2020’s in the developed world and not realizing that internet access is a basic necessity.
Then imagine being the sort of person who would deny poor people basic necessities
Standard Republican Worldview
My mom works with internet people. I remember when I was a kid she was making fun of them for saying internet should be a basic human right. Nowadays, it would be hard to find someone who doesn't think that lol
Nationalize internet.
Hows about "Create local and municipal fiber to the curb to stoke competition and drive down prices" instead ?
Markets are extremely bad when it comes to proper allocation of essentials. Infrastructure in general should be nationalized at minimum, and heavily invested in.
The local fiber provider skipped my street altogether because spectrum has a contract with the apartments, and they don't think it's worth running fiber to compete. I wish this was a joke. The providers are literally NOT competing at all. Residential homeowners are screwed because spectrum has a chokehold on the other half of the neighborhood.
It's literally a fucking necessity so if course it's privately owned... It's so ridiculous how we treat necessities... Tell me what job you can apply to that doesn't require it to be done over the Internet?
I remember when I could walk in to a store and shake the managers hand, then things changed and I got looked at like I was crazy "just go online and apply, why are you here?"
the sad bit is, wireline internet providers could sell $30 per month high-speed internet and still make money at that lower rate and without subsidies.
Every penny that goes to social programs to help the poor is a penny that isn't going to corporations and their billionaire donors. Of course they want to cancel it, along with social security, medicare and public libraries.
MORE GOD BLESSED MILITARY GROWTH
Always have money for war and bloodshed
And whenever they have control, more tax cuts for the rich.
Damn 30$ discount. How much do you pay in the states for broadband access. I pay about 40$ each month for a 500/500 connection.
In a city a connection like that is probably going to be in the area of $60 to $100. I pay $80 all in for a similar fiber connection.
Outside of a city you just aren't going to get it.
There are a few places that have Community ISPs where it will be substantially less expensive, but those are the exceptions and many states have actually made it illegal to operate community ISPs.
Jesus Christ that all sounds terrible
That's germany levels of shitty internet infrastructure. we pay 20€ for 100/60
Just got fiber in my area of the US, it’s $60 for 500/500, or $80 for 1000/1000
paying almost $90 now, here, for supposedly 300mbps (downstream) that barely ever gets past 60. there are people near me that pay about the same for 1mbps or less dsl (just outside of cable's territory, so dsl is all they have)
That goes for about $70 here, in a competitive, urban market. $50 for 300.
When I lived in Sacramento, CA I got 1gbps down, 15 Mbps up for like 100 bucks
An hour out into the rural areas and I pay 120 for 100 Mbps both ways ON FIBER
It's infuriating
I’m in an urban area where my apartment building is wired for only one ISP. $92 a month, the speed test I just did was 400 down, 20 up.
Just take it out of the oil and gas subsidies.
It’s what Republican Jesus would do, fuck the poor. We could fund Israel’s war with all that wasteful spending!
brainrot-level take incoming: jesus was a jew, it's obvious
referring to tax cuts for the rich
Fucking poor people!! Have they tried NOT being poor!? Bunch of lazy entitled poors!! /s
Both parties are the same!
Lot of Republican governors of states that signed a letter urging this subsidy to be renewed. Seriously, broadband subsidies for rural areas should be renewed.
Lmao, their problem with it, is that the vast majority of people using the ACP already had Internet before signing up....Which just proves how much of a necessity Internet is.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Republican members of Congress blasted a program that gives $30 monthly broadband discounts to people with low incomes, accusing the Federal Communications Commission of being "wasteful."
The lawmakers suggested in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel that they may try to block funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which is expected to run out of money in April 2024.
The letter questioned Rosenworcel's testimony at a recent House hearing in which she warned that 25 million households could lose Internet access if Congress doesn't renew the ACP discounts.
"At a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on November 30, 2023, you asserted—without evidence and contrary to the FCC's own data—that '25 million households' would be 'unplug[ged]…from the Internet' if Congress does not provide new funding for the ACP," the letter said.
As Congress considers the future of taxpayer broadband subsidies, we ask you to correct the hearing record and make public accurate information about the ACP."
Unfortunately, your testimony pushes "facts" about the ACP that are deeply misleading and have the potential to exacerbate the fiscal crisis without producing meaningful benefits to the American consumer.
The original article contains 546 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
We're is this technology related? It's completely political - something I don't want to see, but now also technology cannot be followed anymore, as most things here are political news with a tech keyword in the headline sadly :/
But isn't broadband access one of the main requirements for using technology? I understand not wanting to interact with politics, but nothing in our life is truly separated from it.
Politics is everything
If your kid is the better player but the coach picks his kid to be on the team then that’s politics
If company puts a paid OS on their IBM machines because it’s made by the son of someone on their board instead of the superior free option then that’s politics
...broadband Internet has nothing to do with technology?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=s_4J4uor3JE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
