Posted on 04/01/2025 1:43:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It’s like it’s his first time learning just how inefficient our government is.
Comedian and late night host Jon Stewart is obviously pretty liberal, and has been a big critic of the Donald Trump administration in its efforts to cut the government through Elon Musk’s DOGE. But after this one, you’ve gotta think he at least understands why it might be necessary.
In case you weren’t aware, the Joe Biden administration included $42 billion in its 2021 infrastructure spending package to expand broadband internet access to 25 million homes that didn’t have access to high speed internet. Sounds great, right?
Well here we are 4 years later and not a SINGLE new home has been added to broadband as a result of that $42 billion. That’s right, zero.
That’s our government for you.
But apparently even Jon Stewart didn’t realize all the insane red tape that was involved with the government program – and his mind was blown when he found out.
During a recent episode of his The Weekly Show podcast, liberal commentator Ezra Klein explained just how ridiculous the hoops are that states have to go through to get the funding from the federal government to expand their broadband network.
As it turns out, there’s a FOURTEEN step process that jurisdictions have to go through, which includes submitting multiple “initial proposals,” opening their proposals up to comments and challenges, get approval from government agencies like the NTIA (the National Telecommunications and Information Administration), and then states must open up a competitive process to receive sub-grants for the funding. And after all of that, we’re only at step 12 of the process.
After all that, states must then submit a final proposal (remember, they’ve already submitted two “initial proposals”), which must then be reviewed and approved by NTIA – all before they get a dollar or help one American get internet access.
Insanity.
As Klein walks through the insane steps of the process, you can see Stewart losing his mind over the ridiculous red tape:
“I’m speechless, honestly. It’s far worse than I could have imagined. But the fact that they amputated their own legs on this is what’s so stunning.”
And Klein points out that this is the process that Democrats in both the Biden administration and Congress implemented for this program:
“This is a bill passed by Democrats with a regulatory structure written by a Democratic administration.”
All told, 56 jurisdictions have applied for funding under the program, but at this point only three of the 56 have made it to step 14, which is waiting for final approval from the NTIA. Thirty jurisdictions have made it through 12 steps and just have to submit their final proposal for review. But in the meantime, that $42 billion is just sitting there and hasn’t helped one American.
Absolutely insane.
Now, I’m sure this isn’t going to do anything to change Stewart’s mind on the bigger picture, but you can see that his mind was blown when he realized just how inefficient and downright ridiculous our government really is.
Making the case for DOGE even stronger, whether he agrees with their actions or not…
Another fake phony fraud chameleon like Bill Mahar. Just like the phony “conservative chic” fakes
-PJ
Wasn’t he a big member of the press the last 4 years?
Spare me the outrage. It’s passed that stage. Time to get serious and stop the insanity. At this point, we are left with the ballot box. Prepare accordingly.
I think they believe in complex processes to protect things they see as gains but think the gatekeepers are supposed to waive those processes to advance policies they support. Stewart's mind loss is over discovering that something he supports is being treated like a conservative initiative. :)
That was my feeling. I can’t stand the guy. He is a full-on Leftist.
The choreographed squealing about DOGE is from corrupt leftists feeding at the trough.
They have riled up the moron base because their gravy train is finally threatened.
The attacks on Pete Hegeseth are from the pigs in the defense industrial complex.
They all like it in there because their gaseous emissions stay in there with them!
The single key diagnostic difference between leftists and normal people is that leftists believe passionately that big government is the solution to all problems, while normal people see a variety of institutions as having a role to play. This rural internet fiasco is the perfect case in point in showing that big government is often the worst possible solution.
IOW, this idiot has had his eyes closed for 35 years, at least.
For what it is worth, here is the sign translation (my interpretation):
Looks like it is after 5 PM, time for a drink. I'll get tight, maybe touch some young girl's breasts, Jill will try to stop me, and the young girl's father will threaten to cut off my left hand. Whaddya gonna do?
There are secondary effects as well. People who were doing other efforts that might have gotten some of these small towns connected up, stopped, because of course they can’t compete against “free” government money.
And then there’s Starlink. No one can admit that this largely solves the problem. Yes, terrestrial fiber optics is better, but Starlink will do for most.
All that red tape is the jobs program.
Wow. A famous lefty is an uniformed, stupid, moron. Whodathink?
There are people whose main job is to fill out federal applications for companies and organizations.
For that alone, he will always have my respect.
Of course there is value in Fed.gov monitoring and confirming states’ plans before giving out money, and also value in allowing citizens to challenge the final plans.
But this is operating at DC speed on DC terms
Each step could be shortened to a matter of weeks, instead of months or years.
“But in the meantime, that $42 billion is just sitting there”
So we actually haven’t spent any of it?
So, thankfully, no money wasted so far.
Elon could have done it for half that and it would have taken about three weeks.
No one should be surprised by the examples of government waste being exposed by DOGE.
To be conservative, let’s say just half of annual government spending over the last fifty years was taxpayer funded. We are $37 trillion in debt, so that means total government spending during that time was twice that - $74 trillion.
And by any measure we have absolutely nothing positive to show for it - we are less educated, our military is weaker, our standard of living is lower, our health is in decline - the only ‘improvement’ I can think of is easier access to GPS, social media, and porn.
Sure, Americans had food and shelter all that time - but that was as a result of their own hard work - not government programs.. so IMHO the whole $74 trillion was pure waste - in fact we would have been better off with no federal government at all.
And with $74 trillion arguably wasted, why should anyone be shocked by the hundreds of billions DOGE is finding? I’m certainly not.
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