{"id":1644,"date":"2010-03-24T23:06:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T23:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discovery.org\/tech\/2010\/03\/24\/broadband_taxes\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T21:56:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T21:56:42","slug":"broadband_taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/2010\/03\/24\/broadband_taxes\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadband taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/download.broadband.gov\/plan\/national-broadband-plan.pdf\">National Broadband Plan<\/a> is going to take a while to digest.<br \/>\nThe following recommendations are included in the description of how the FCC plans to subsidize broadband &#8212; which may be necessary if it frightens away private investment with network neutrality regulation which deprives private investors of a fair return on their capital:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>RECOMMENDATION 8.2: The FCC should create the Connect America Fund (CAF).  (p. 145-46)<br \/>\nRECOMMENDATION 8.3: The FCC should create the Mobility Fund. (p. 146)<br \/>\nRECOMMENDATION 8.4: The FCC should design new USF funds in a tax-efficient manner to minimize the size of the gap. (p. 146)<br \/>\nRECOMMENDATION 8.6: The FCC should take action to shift up to $15.5 billion over the next decade from the current high-cost program to broadband through common-sense reforms. (p. 147-48)<br \/>\nRECOMMENDATION 8.15: To accelerate broadband deployment, Congress should consider providing optional public funding to the Connect America Fund, such as a few billion dollars per year over a two to three year period. (p. 151)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Does the FCC have the power to do all of these things?<br \/>\nThis language makes it sound like the FCC views itself as a mini-Congress with the power to tax and spend.<br \/>\nI cannot imagine this is the sort of thing the Founding Fathers had in mind when they provided that &#8220;The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes,&#8221; (Art. I, Sec. 8) &#8220;All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives,&#8221; (Art. I, Sec. 7) and &#8220;No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.&#8221; (Art. I, Sec. 9)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Broadband Plan is going to take a while to digest. The following recommendations are included in the description of how the FCC plans to subsidize broadband &#8212; which may be necessary if it frightens away private investment with network neutrality regulation which deprives private investors of a fair return on their capital: RECOMMENDATION 8.2: The FCC should create the Connect America Fund (CAF). (p. 145-46) RECOMMENDATION 8.3: The FCC should create the Mobility Fund. (p. 146) RECOMMENDATION 8.4: The FCC should design new USF funds in a tax-efficient manner to minimize the size of the gap. (p. 146) RECOMMENDATION 8.6: The FCC should take action to shift up to $15.5 billion over the next decade from the current<a class=\"ellipsis article-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/2010\/03\/24\/broadband_taxes\/\"><span> Read More &rsaquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,45,59],"tags":[],"coauthors":[112],"class_list":["post-1644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadband","category-telecommunications","category-universal-service"],"acf":[],"author_names":["Hance Haney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1644"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1644"}],"wp:action-assign-author":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discovery.org\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post\/1644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}