You have probably heard some rumblings about President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan. There is a lot to be concerned about. Today, I wanted to point out that there is an alarming $174 billion for electric vehicles (EVs), which includes building 500,000 charging stations. EVs are expensive and disproportionately purchased by higher income people. It is an outrage that taxpayers are footing the bill for more EVs. And, imagine the outrage if taxpayer dollars would be used to build gas stations. Taxpayers should not be funding EVs or charging stations. This should be the responsibility of the private sector. In the coming weeks, we will have a lot more analysis on the infrastructure bill and the (gulp) tax increases that President Biden wants to enact.
Profile in Courage - Mark Schlefer
I am almost certain that you have never heard of Mark Schlefer. Well, because of his dogged pursuit of information for more than 50 years, Americans have been able to keep tabs on their government and examine government documents hidden from the public view with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The process of holding the government accountable for secret programs and communications used to take skilled, time-consuming investigative journalism and an army of lawyers. Even then, success was far from guaranteed. But thanks to FOIA, and its bold creators and supporters such as Mark Schlefer, keeping the government honest has become a considerably simpler process. Through a painstaking drafting process, Schlefer helped ensure that FOIA would actually have teeth rather than serve as another layer of bureaucracy shielding the government from the public. And, for giving the American public a critical resource to fight federal overreach, the dearly departed Mark Schlefer is truly a Profile in Courage.
Even if Schlefer had never gotten himself involved in the FOIA drafting process, the late public servant would still have been a Profile in Courage. In the Second World War, Schlefer survived an astounding 36 combat missions as a bombardier-navigator. Yet, even after dealing defeat to the Nazis, the 22-year-old was denied the opportunity to partake in a glass of champagne inside of an officers’ club to celebrate Germany’s surrender in 1945. The sad reality was that, despite the promise of military meritocracy and the shared sense of purpose brought on by WWII, there would always be a small, elite group that was shielded from everyone else. This terrible truth of an unyielding bureaucracy and hierarchy that shielded itself from accountability and transparency became all the more apparent to Schlefer after becoming a maritime lawyer representing aggrieved shipping companies in tariff disputes. The young attorney wondered why one client of his was denied permission by the U.S. Maritime Commission to take part in trade on the Mariana Islands. He promptly asked the government agency for a rationale. But the commission unsatisfactorily replied that its tariff documentation decisions are not available to the public, regardless of the cost and inconvenience posed by said rulings. Schlefer soon learned that he was not alone in his outrage over runaway government secrecy. A report released in 1953 by the American Society of News Editors chronicled the proliferation of federal classifications, leading to legislative efforts to hold the government accountable. These findings of runaway government secrecy resonated with Rep. John Moss (D–Calif.), who led the charge on Capitol Hill to craft a pro-transparency bill in 1966. Schlefer gladly offered his services in helping to draft the bill, which included language giving citizens the right to view federal documents unless the underlying information fell under admittedly broad exemptions. But the stakes were high and getting lawmakers to sign off on FOIA certainly wasn’t easy. This effort to enact pro-transparency legislation was happening at the height of the Cold War, and public officials were fearful that the Soviets were trying to steal secrets. Reason reporter C.J. Ciaramella notes, “Twenty-seven federal agencies testified on the proposed legislation, all of them in opposition. The Justice Department argued that the bill was unconstitutional because it would violate the separation of powers.”
Rep. Moss helped shepherd the legislation through the House while Schlefer succeeded in convincing the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to give the bill a chance. Their tireless efforts paved the way for Congressional passage and an eventual signature from then-President Lyndon Johnson. The FOIA process, of course, is still far from perfect. Federal agencies readily take advantage of the large exemptions contained under the legislation and often claim that FOIA search requests are too broad to perform. Nonetheless, Schlefer’s efforts contributed greatly to the cause of transparency and opened the door to greater accountability in Washington, D.C. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance, along with our many allies across the political spectrum, uses FOIA as a way to expose government misdeeds and corruption. TPA doesn’t always get the information requested, but taxpayers have more insight than ever before as to how the government works as a result of the landmark law. And, the unearthing of historical documents has forced officials to acknowledge and address previous wrongs. And because this revolution would not be possible without Mark Schlefer, the late public servant is certainly a Profile in Courage.
Biden’s Broadband Boondoggles
Oh boy, here we go again. President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, which includes a laundry list of infrastructure proposals with a $2 trillion total price tag, wants to allocate $100 billion towards broadband. The White House is doing this even though the government’s track record on high-speed internet has been awful. Taxpayer money is already being spent on broadband and it isn’t going very well. A U.S. Government Accountability Office report noted that federal spending on programs to close the digital divide totaled $47.3 billion between 2009 and 2017. However, this allocation pales in comparison to the$172 billion spent by the private sector from 2011 to 2020. The Associated Press pointed out that the digital divide persists despite that government spending, with another $20 billion already allocated toward rural broadband over the next decade, $9 billion more for 5G in rural areas and billions more from COVID-19 pandemic relief. None of those eye-popping totals include the $100 billion that the Biden administration is proposing. An eye-popping 1.3 million (340,000 rural) additional homes have broadband availability since 2019 through the private sector’s efforts.
Michael Powell, president and CEO of NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, released a statement on the plan that said the administration “risks taking a serious wrong turn” in its goal of promoting government-owned networks to help close the digital divide. The impetus for that rhetoric lies in government insistence on treating broadband like a utility. “This shift is encouraged by mistakenly lumping in our successful modern digital networks with our decaying roads, bridges, waterways and electric grids,” Powell said. “While we have seen repeated examples of traditional infrastructure failures in recent years, America’s broadband has been a reliable workhorse as millions of Americans have worked, learned and stayed connected from home during the pandemic.” Much like the infrastructure failures mentioned by Powell, TPA has for years reported on the failures of government-owned networks. Examples are not lacking, and many are highlighted on TPA’s Broadband Boondoggles website and GON With the Wind report released last year.
The private sector is more than capable of doing the job of closing the digital divide when freed from the shackles of onerous regulations. Rather than throw more taxpayer money at broadband at a time when the national debt is piling up at a record rate, the Biden administration would be better served to eliminate red tape and let the private sector get to work. The private sector has been, and will continue, closing the digital divide more efficiently…all without taxpayer money.
BLOGS:
April 5, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about H.R., the For the People Act.
April 6, 2021: I appeared on “The Lars Larson Show” (nationally syndicated) to discuss drug pricing and infrastructure
April 6, 2021: KTSA 550 AM (San Antonio, Texas) quoted TPA in their story about drug pricing and infrastructure
April 6, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “With proper patent protection, vaccines offer plenty of promise.”
April 6, 2021: Supertalk Radio Mississippi (statewide) quoted TPA in their story about drug pricing and infrastructure.
April 6, 2021: KKFT 99.1 FM (Reno, Nev.) quoted TPA in their story about drug pricing and infrastructure.
April 7, 2021: WBFF quoted TPA in their story, “More than $30 million has been paid to Marylanders waiting on unemployment claims.”
April 8, 2021: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about the potential return of earmarks.
April 8, 2021: I appeared on WORD 106.3 FM (Greenville, S.C.) to talk about drug pricing and infrastructure.
April 8, 2021: I appeared on WFIL 560 AM (Philadelphia, Pa.) to talk about infrastructure.
April 8, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about an audit of COVID tests acquired by Gov. Larry Hogan.
April 8, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA’s op-ed, “Biden shouldn’t throw more taxpayer money at broadband.”
April 9, 2021: Issues & Insights ran TPA's op-ed, "Political Games Won't Solve Postal Service Woes."
April 9, 2021: TownHall ran TPA's op-ed, "Electric Vehicle Subsidies' Surprising Appearance in Infrastructure Bill."
Have a great weekend!
Best,
David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
1401 K Street, NW
Suite 502
Washington, D.C. xxxxxx
www.protectingtaxpayers.org
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