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…
I wonder if people on the left are faking it because they did know or are genuinely having their eyes opened.
its called ‘liberal efficiency’
Inefficient? That’s absolutely wrong. The Big Guy’s reign was sublimely efficient in funneling billions and billions and billions to contributors,family,members of protected classes...
How many Starlinks could you buy for 42 billion dollars? About 84 million, because they’re about $500 each. That doesn’t include a subscription, however, which would cost extra, but it’s also the retail price of the units, which is maybe more then one should pay if getting 84 million of them in one go.
So?
Stewart will still happily vote for it again.
now tell Jon about the seven billion allocated to build EV chargers and how many got built ...
It’s a slow process. And on some citizens, it’s just never going to work. But it will eventually work on some citizens.
The average citizen is not a bad person and also not an idiot. They assume (because the TV tells them so) that their local schools are good, the local cops are catching the bad guys, and the government is spending billions of dollars helping people get good healthcare, connect to the internet, and all sorts of other things.
If it can be made clear to people that government tax revenue (measured in TRILLIONS) is almost exclusively spent to enrich politicians and elect Democrats against the will of the voters, well, once people realize that, I think there’s going to be a change.
If true, people really need to wake up and realize that NOTHING the government does is better than what a private company can do. Nothing. Not our post office, military, police forces, or fire departments.
Jon Stewart lives in a liberal echo chamber. Every once in a while he steps outside, and is shocked to hear what is actually happening. Inside the echo chamber, millions of needy, deserving rural families were given free broadband, and access to remote learning and employment.
Jon needs to spend more time outside the echo chamber. But he won’t, because he likes it in there.
Owned a cable company. Years ago these same programs were around. We found it more efficient to build out fiber in our dime. We were able to build faster and cheaper. The federal government wanted us to buy certain products, pay certain amounts, keep receipts for 15 YEARS, build a certain way, charge a certain amount. Companies can’t meet the requirements.
Billy Jeff Clinton and AlGore made a big splash (in the Drive-By Media) about laying down cables for the Information SuperHighway. This was the early 1990s. The grift, the graft, the money funnel, is all the democRATS and DemoKKKrats know. This is why they are screaming at the top of their lungs.
Collectively, they are basically shouting: “Don’t make me have to get a job!”
How much to sign them up for Starlink?
Meanwhile the federal employees have a bottomless charge number.
Lernin’ stuff can be ‘i’ opening jon.
Who?
Build Back Better...
You should make a separate post calling on Trump to replace the broadband Internet initiative landlines with Starlink. Leftist heads would explode.
Every government funded project should have provisions to wholesale fire the bureaucrats running it if it’s not successfully implemented. Apparently our public masters need fear to motivate them.
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