[rlmorel]

I just heard about this today...apparently anyone will be able to request two certificates totaling $80 US. My first thought was..."What? Is this an appropriate use of tax dollars?"

Any thoughts on this? Is it appropriate since television is a form of communication with the citizenry? Or is this some kind of boondoggle? Should we all treat it as a tax refund and apply for it? It sounds like the money will simply be granted...

[rlmorel]

By the way, if I wasn’t clear, my first thought was “NO WAY!”

[The Iceman Cometh]

I want my coupon sent attached to a free government 42” LCD.

[HAL9000]

It sounds like the money will simply be granted...

The analog spectrum used by the old TV channels will be auctioned off, and the auction paid by the auction winners to the federal government are expected to greatly exceed the cost of the rebate program.

[NathanR]

Yes it is a boondoggle. We are being thrown a sop, because they are greedily destroying a perfectly good analog system and replacing it with an unwanted digital system.

At least that is how I see it.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

^

[ShadowAce]

[kevkrom]

I think the coupons are only good for the purchase of a converter, so they won;t do you much good if you don’t plan on buying the converters. (For example, I use DirecTV, so I don’t care about over-the-air signals anyway.)

Since analog will be useless by government mandate, it could easily be justified that this represents a “taking” in terms of making people’s private property unusable, so I have little problem with the government making compensation for the taking, especially since, as has been pointed out, the auctioning of the old frequencies will more than pay for the coupon program.

[EBH]

Coupons came this week.