Political Quotes

“The gentleman brings up a good point. Just one instance of stimulus spending in my district where it actually threatens jobs, and that was a program that came out of the BTOP grant program to try to provide broadband to unserved and underserved areas across this country, a noble purpose, to try to make sure that we're connected to Internet technologies that we need with high speed, to make sure we're able to educate children and a competitive workforce. But, unfortunately, the money that came out of the stimulus actually was used to duplicate services by the private sector. In some areas, they actually overbuilt, 100 percent with government money, services, a fiber-optic cable that was already in place by the private sector. Many of these companies are very small, small co-ops, telecoms that can't afford to have somebody come in and undermine them with the free government money, trying to offer under-cost services, and yet that's exactly what happened in the stimulus bill. They were already providing the service, and yet the government came in and laid a line right next to the line that already existed in there. So that's what happened in the stimulus bill. Instead of creating jobs, it actually undermined our ability to build the private sector up. And I know the gentlelady from Alabama has been an incredible leader on this.”