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Bernie Sanders on TechnologyDemocratic primary challenger; Independent VT Senator; previously Representative (VT-At-Large) |
FOUR CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Bill de Blasio; Tulsi Gabbard; Elizabeth Warren; Marianne Williamson.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren laid down a marker by calling for Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple to be broken apart, saying in March that they have "bulldozed competition." Sen. Bernie Sanders said in July that he would "absolutely" seek to break up Google, Facebook and Amazon, singling out the latter two in particular for what he said was outsize power. Those comments followed months of flirting with break-up calls. He previously told The New York Times that "in general" he supports breaking up the tech giants, and he told POLITICO that "we should definitely take a look at" breaking up tech titans and that he'd be all for breaking up Facebook in particular.
Trump would encourage states to sell our nation's highways, bridges, and other vital infrastructure to Wall Street, wealthy campaign contributors, even foreign governments. The reality is that Trump's plan to privatize our nation's infrastructure is an old idea that has never worked and never will work.
Unlike Trump, I do not believe that mainstream media is "fake news" or an "enemy of the people". I don't believe that most reporters carry a grudge or intentionally try to destroy politicians. I do believe, however, as I have said many times, that for a variety of obvious reasons, multinational conglomerates that own our media are not interested in analyzing the power of big-money interests, or the needs of working families.
SANDERS: You are absolutely right. I would hope very much that President Trump will work with us. If he wants to come on board and work with us, that would be great. In terms of infrastructure, clearly, he is right when he says that our infrastructure is crumbling. We can create up to 13 million decent-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. We're going to have legislation in that will do just that. I hope that he will work with us. We also understand that our trade policies are a disaster. Let's see if we can work together on that as well.
In 2007, Bernie introduced the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would have required broadband service providers to adhere to neutrality provisions and other regulations.
In 2006, Bernie introduced the Network Neutrality Act, which also would have enforced net neutrality on broadband providers.
A: Bernie believes space exploration is beneficial and exciting, and is generally supportive of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), but when it comes to a limited federal budget, Bernie's vote is to take care of the needs of struggling Americans on this planet first. Bernie says, "I am supportive of NASA not only because of the excitement of space exploration, but because of all the additional side benefits we receive from research in that area. Sometimes, and frankly I don't remember all of those votes, one is put in a position of having to make very very difficult choices about whether you vote to provide food for hungry kids or health care for people who have none and other programs. But, in general, I do support increasing funding for NASA."
Is this the best our country can do? No. We can and we must do better. That's why we need to invest at least $1 trillion over five years to rebuild America. This will not only make us safer, more productive and more efficient, but it will generate income and create jobs--lots of jobs. The estimate is that this $1 trillion investment will create and maintain 13 million jobs--which is exactly what our economy needs. We have ignored our infrastructure crisis for too long. The time to act is now.
There's a reason that investing in our infrastructure has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress. It's a good idea. This funding should receive the highest priority.
It's high time we stopped bailing out Wall Street and started repairing Main Street.
I was in Rutland Vermont; the mayor showed me a piece of pipe, an old piece of pipe. He said: "You know, the engineer who helped develop this water system and lay this pipe, after he did this work for Rutland, he went off to fight in the war." I knew there was a catch line coming. I said: "What war was it?" He said: "It was the Civil War." This is true all over the US. The result is, we lose an enormous amount of clean water every day through leaks and water pipes bursting. The point is, when you invest in infrastructure, you get a bigger bang for the buck
Let me tell you something as a former mayor: infrastructure does not get better if you ignore it. You can turn your back, if you are a mayor or Governor, on the roads and the highways because you do not have the money to fix them today, but they are not going to get better next year. At some point, they are going to have to be repaired and fixed. We may as well do that right now.
I believe the money, the very substantial sums of money in this agreement between the President and the Republicans, which goes into tax breaks for corporate America, could be effectively spent on infrastructure.
Years ago, I was in Shanghai, China. There was a blur that went by the window. That blur was an experimental train they were working on--high-speed rail, which is now operational there, and other similar prototypes are being developed in China. Here we are, the United States of America, which for so many years led the world in so many ways, and now you are seeing a newly developing country such as China with high-speed rail all over their country, and in our cities, our subways are breaking down. Amtrak is going 50, 60 miles an hour, and the Chinese and Europeans have trains going hundreds of miles an hour.
Founded in the spring of 1996, the Congressional Internet Caucus is a bipartisan group of over 150 members of the House and Senate working to educate their colleagues about the promise and potential of the Internet. The Caucus also encourages Members to utilize the Internet in communications with constituents and supports efforts to put more government documents online. The Internet Caucus Advisory Committee and the Internet Education Foundation host regular events and forums for policymakers, the press, and the public to discuss important Internet-related policy issues.
A bill to facilitate nationwide availability of 2-1-1 telephone service for information and referral on human services & volunteer services. Congress makes the following findings:
Introductory statement by Sponsor:
Sen. CLINTON: In the immediate aftermath of the devastation of September 11, most people did not know where to turn for information about their loved ones. Fortunately for those who knew about it, 2-1-1 was already operating in Connecticut, and it was critical in helping identify the whereabouts of victims, connecting frightened children with their parents, providing information on terrorist suspects, and linking ready volunteers with victims.
Every single American should have a number they can call to cut through the chaos of an emergency. That number is 2-1-1. It`s time to make our citizens and our country safer by making this resource available nationwide.
Excerpts from Letter to FCC chairman from 15 Senators: We write to express how deeply troubled we are that one of your first actions as FCC Chairman has been to undermine the Lifeline program and make it more difficult for low-income people to access affordable broadband. Lifeline is a critical tool for closing the digital divide--a problem you pledged to prioritize. Abruptly revoking the recognition of nine companies as Lifeline broadband providers does nothing but create a chilling effect on potential provider participation, and unfairly punish low-income consumers.
Last year, the FCC modernized the Lifeline program, rightfully refocusing its support on broadband, which helps end the cruel `homework gap` for the five million out of the 28 million households in this country with school-aged children who lack access to broadband.
By statute, the FCC has an obligation to ensure `consumers in all regions of the country, including low-income consumers` have access to `advanced telecommunications services.`
Opposing argument: (Heritage Budget Book, `Cut Universal Service Subsidies`): Heritage Recommendation: Eliminate telecommunications subsidies for rural areas, phase out the schools and libraries subsidy program, and reduce spending on the Lifeline program by reducing fraud and waste. The `Lifeline` fund, while well-intended, has been plagued by fraud and abuse, as costs tripled from under $600 million in 2001 to almost $1.8 billion in the 2013 funding year.
Supporting argument: (ACLU, `Task Force Letter`): The ACLU, a co-chair of the Leadership Conference Media Task Force, joined this letter to the FCC Chairman in response to his decisions to revoke the Lifeline Broadband Provider designations for nine providers. The ACLU has long supported expansion of the Lifeline program, which provides access to phone and broadband services for lower income families.
Sen. DORGAN. `The issue of Internet freedom is also known as net neutrality. I have long fought in Congress against media concentration, to prevent the consolidation of control over what Americans see in the media. Now, Americans face an equally great threat to the democratic vehicle of the Internet, which we have always taken for granted as an open and free engine for creative growth.
`The Internet became a robust engine of economic development by enabling anyone with a good idea to connect to consumers and compete on a level playing field for consumers` business. The marketplace picked winners and losers, and not some central gatekeeper.
`But now we face a situation where the FCC has removed nondiscrimination rules that applied to Internet providers for years. Broadband operators soon thereafter announced their interest in acting in discriminatory ways, planning to create tiers on the Internet that could restrict content providers` access to the Internet unless they pay extra for faster speeds or better service. Under their plan, the Internet would become a new world where those content providers who can afford to pay special fees would have better access to consumers.
`This fundamentally changes the way the Internet has operated and threaten to derail the democratic nature of the Internet. American consumers and businesses will be worse off for it. Today we introduce the Internet Freedom Preservation Act to ensure that the Internet remains a platform that spawns innovation and economic development for generations to come.`
Congressional Summary:Disapproves the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on February 22, 2008, relating to broadcast media ownership. Declares that the rule shall have no force or effect.
Proponents` Argument in Favor:Sen. DORGAN: The FCC loosened the ban on cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations. We seek with this resolution of disapproval to reverse the FCC`s fast march to ease media ownership rules. The FCC has taken a series of destructive actions in the past two decades that I believe have undermined the public interest. [Now they have given] a further green light to media concentration.
The FCC voted to allow cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the top 20 markets, with loopholes for mergers outside of the top 20 markets. The newspapers would be allowed to buy stations ranked above fifth and above.
The rule change was framed as a modest compromise. But make no mistake, this is a big deal. As much as 44% of the population lives in the top 20 markets. The last time the FCC tried to do this, in 2003, the Senate voted to block it.
This rule will undercut localism and diversity of ownership around the country. Studies show that removing the ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership results in a net loss in the amount of local news produced in the market as a whole. In addition, while the FCC suggests that cross-ownership is necessary to save failing newspapers, the publicly traded newspapers earn annual rates of return between 16% and 18%.
This Resolution of Disapproval will ensure this rule change has no effect. This is again a bipartisan effort to stop the FCC from destroying the local interests that we have always felt must be a part of broadcasting.