We Can't Afford To Short Change Rural America

To anyone in Congress trying to cut funding for rural broadband, ask yourself this: do you care about the future economic viability of the rural communities you represent?

If so, how can you justify taking away money from the only infrastructure that gives these rural communities a fighting chance to not just survive but thrive in the 21st century?

It's like saying, "Rural America doesn't deserve to be a player on the world's stage, their businesses don't need any help competing in the global economy, their children are just fine being disconnected and unable to access the resources of their peers, their elderly and sick can get by without top-flight medical care" and so on.

Of course other reasons are given for why this funding should be cut, but none are so onerous that we should be considering backing off throwing our full support behind solving the rural broadband problem.

First off, there are a ton of shovel-ready projects that can start deploying as soon as capital's made available, and many more will become ready now that they know the federal government's ready to help out.

Secondly, the only thing getting in the way of our ability to spend all that $9 billion on deployment in two years is the pace at which government's able to distribute those funds.

I can't help but feel that anyone trying to cut funding from rural broadband is basically saying, "Well, this looks like it's going to be hard, and there's no guarantee it's going to succeed, so let's hedge our bets and back off from pushing all in."

Yet even at $9 billion we're a long ways away from throwing the full support of the US government behind rural broadband. It's less than a fifth of what we'll need to wire all of rural America with next-generation broadband, and it represents only 1% of the total stimulus package.

Don't get me wrong: I think this money's a great first step. But to cut any of this funding now feels like taking two steps forward and one step back at a time when we need to be running.

If we need to trim funding from stimulus, fine, but let's not step back from our support for rural America and short-change their future. They can't afford to wait around as we continue to hesitate. Even if we have to err on the side of doing too much that's better than not doing enough.