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 | Digital TV: Where have all the Republicans gone? Posted by Laure Chipman on 11/04, 10:27am | |
| We are on our way to a $3 billion subsidy to help people buy digital-to-analog converter boxes for their old TVs. Looks like a new "right" is being born: the right to watch TV. "The move to all-digital will free valuable radio spectrum, some of which will be allocated to improve radio communications among fire and police departments and other first responders." That's fine, I guess, but it does bring up the question of why can't the first responders use digital communications. I am not an expert on this issue, but the approach is awfully heavy-handed and interventionist. "In the Senate, an amendment by Republican John Ensign of Nevada that would have reduced the converter box subsidy to $1 billion was withdrawn. Spokesman Jack Finn said Ensign was concerned that the $2 billion in savings would be spent on other projects instead of deficit reduction." So, Republicans are now approving massive spending because they figure that if they don't, the money will just be spent on something else that they like even less. And we have Republican majorities in the House and Senate, and a Republican president. Has there ever been a time when Republicans and Democrats were so indistinguishable? We have a Republican president poised to spend hundreds of billions of federal dollars to rebuild the Gulf Coast; "it's gon' cost what it's gon' cost" is I think what he was quoted as saying. We are giving hurricane victims money, even if they haven't purchased federal flood insurance. How long before anyone who has had a misfortune befall them can go to the government and demand "Where's my check"? We are providing free lunches, and sometimes free breakfasts, to countless school children. And now we need other programs to help these school children with their obesity problems. So, what do you think, are there any fiscal conservatives out there who might duke it out within the Republican Party before the next election? | ||
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