Why The Stimulus Program Is Slow Going: 2,200 Applications For Broadband Funds

Part of the $787 billion stimulus package is $28 billion set aside to improve the nation’s broadband infrastructure.

According to USA Today, some of the applications are 500 pages long. The government has to sort through applications by telecom firms, cable companies, state and local governments, schools and libraries. And, that is just a partial list.

The dilemma says a great deal about what is wrong with the stimulus package. Its goals are too broad, and its effects are too diffuse. A large portion of the money from the programs will not reach the economy until well into 2010. By that time, it will either be too late to help most of the sectors of the faltering business system or GDP will have recovered so much that trying to further stimulate national manufacturing and services will be a poor use of the taxpayers’ money.

The US stimulus package is almost entirely different from the $585 billion program in China. The money on the mainland has been put directly through banks for lending purposes in many cases. The capital hits the national economy almost immediately. In America, the liquidity goes through scores of government agencies, part of a huge bureaucracy which is ill-equipped to take on the administration and monitoring of new projects.

It will take a long time to properly evaluate 2,200 broadband proposals and the government will probably not even do a very good job of it.

Douglas A. McIntyre