GOP Wants to Steal Money from Rural Farmers and Rural Entrepreneurs and Stall the Recovery. Aren't many of them Republican too?

Remember the Rural Electrification Act? FDR's Rural Electrification Act of 1936 provided federal loans for installation of electrical distribution systems to serve rural areas of the United States-Wikipedia

Electric companies at the time said it was too expensive and not worth the investment. Now Obama is attempting to do the same with broadband service to farmers, rural small towns and businesses. Not it the GOP gets their way.

President Obama on Friday announced 66 new broadband grants and loans totaling $795 million, part of the administration's continued rollout of Recovery Act grants meant to expand high-speed Internet connections across the country.

"And once we emerge from the immediate crisis, the long-term economic gains to communities that have been left behind in the digital age will be immeasurable," he said.

So far, the administration has doled out $2.7 billion in grants, which is less than half of the $7.2 billion set aside in the stimulus plan for broadband Internet
projects.

Which bring me to the following short sighted plan cooked up by the masters of disasters, the Republican Party. Keeping in mind what FDR did for electricity in rural areas, Rep. Jack Kingston (believe it or not he's on the Appropriations Committee) would kill that idea and stop all the waste. He put it this way,

"Basically paying Verizon and broadband companies to do what they were going to do with their own money, we're now going to pay for it with taxpayer money..."

So they're not going to pay for it...at all. This has been a big issue in south eastern Wisconsin for years. Say goodbye to new opportunity for rural businesses and job creation.

Brilliant!