USA Today

Emerging from this crisis, we call on the federal government to act on three priorities that will get America back on its feet. With investments in broadband access, support for the creation of domestic supply chains and requirements for Congress to meet its constitutional budgetary obligations, we believe that the United States can once again find transformation in a time of crisis. First, we believe that it is time for the United States to close the digital divide and bring high-speed internet to every family, regardless of their ZIP code.

During the Great Depression, people waited in bread lines for sustenance. In today's economic crisis, the internet is often the pathway for relief. Online is where people try to keep or find work. How they see their doctor or apply for jobless benefits. How they order food and supplies. Where they find solace through faith, or laughter through entertainment.

Democrats want to take $80 billion from taxpayers to create a new Washington bureaucracy to shovel money to politicians who think they are qualified to run a broadband network. Funding, subsidizing or otherwise creating a government “competitor” does not work. The last time politicians tried to sell this to Americans they claimed state and municipal governments could build and run high-speed broadband profit-making centers. They tried and failed again and again.