Free Republic

Prioritizing government-owned broadband networks would be inconsistent with the Constitution’s provisions regarding private property and commerce.As part of its massive $2 billion infrastructure proposal, the Biden administration is proposing an ambitious $100 billion broadband plan. The plan overreaches, misdirecting subsidies in ways that are wasteful, such as shoveling funds to areas already served instead of those lacking service. And the plan suggests the need to regulate the broadband prices of private service providers as if they were public utilities. As a matter of policy, these aspects of the Biden broadband plan are serious enough defects. But here we want to...

Across Missouri, about 900 state road and highway bridges are rated in “poor” condition by Missouri Department of Transportation inspectors. In Southwest Missouri alone, that number is a little more than 200. MoDOT officials say the problem — money, or the lack there of — is not anything new. Without a big infusion of new money coming into the state’s road budget, the number of bridges with a “poor” designation likely won’t improve much. and while sources for new revenue are on state and federal tables, they still have obstacles that would have to be overcome. MoDOT officials say being...

President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan packs a huge amount of potential for Nevada to improve and enhance our roads and bridges, turbocharge our economy, blunt the worsening effects of climate change, fuel significant growth in long-term employment and improve the lives of working families in our state. Among its elements, the $2.3 trillion package provides $200 billion for traffic infrastructure and public transportation, $25 billion to upgrade airports, $174 billion to stoke the proliferation of electric vehicles, $213 billion to weatherize homes in middle- and low-income areas as well as building and preserving affordable housing, $300 billion for manufacturing and...

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - President Joe Biden’s economic agenda includes a $2 trillion infrastructure plan that aims to repair roads, focus on clean energy and create millions of jobs for Americans among other issues. The proposal, called the American Jobs Plan, faces an uphill battle in Congress as some Republicans are opposed. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday morning that he was unlikely to support anything “If it’s going to have massive tax increases and trillions more added to the national debt,” according to NBC News. Although there’s a lot to unpack in Biden’s plan, including money to...

President Biden has announced the American Jobs Plan, which is summed up in the headlines as a $2 trillion investment program in infrastructure and green energy plan is expected to boost job creation, strengthen the manufacturing sector, and drive innovation. However, most of it goes to subsidies and current expenditure and comes with the largest tax increase in United States’ history. It has been hailed as a new “New Deal”, and much like its predecessor, it is basically a massive increase in subsidies to non-productive areas of the economy against a series of protectionist and misguided tax hikes to the...

MOUNDSVILLE — Trump Administration officials are continuing to listen as West Virginia officials push for an expanded Interstate 68 from Morgantown through Marshall County. Marshall County Commissioner Robert Miller led a contingent to Washington, D.C., last week to meet with Brittany Carter, the White House assistant director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Miller said the group discussed the I-68 project’s prospects of being included within Trump’s expected $200 billion infrastructure improvement plan, which should be presented to Congress by the end of this year. The I-68 project is expected to cost at least $1 billion. “$200 billion isn’t a...

Senate Republicans blocked a $60 billion infrastructure bill Thursday, making the bill the second piece of President Obama’s jobs proposal to be voted down in the Senate. Republicans and a few Democrats filibustered the broader $447 billion jobs bill last month. The vote came is a scripted floor exchange, with Democrats expected to quickly defeat an alternative GOP infrastructure funding bill. The bill garnered 51 votes--not enough to overcome the 60-vote cloture threshold. The Democratic bill, which includes a $10 billion national infrastructure bank, is funded by a 0.7 percent surtax on incomes of more than $1 million a year....