John McCain on USF . . . and he hasn't even lost his temper

Anyone still doubting whether the rural telecom industry really needs to engage in an effective grassroots campaign? This is an excerpt from remarks made by U.S. Senator John McCain at a town hall meeting at the Old Martin County Courthouse, in Inez, Kentucky last Wednesday, April 23:

The modern economy offers new opportunities for communities like Inez. In particular, through access to high-speed Internet services that facilitate interstate commerce, drive innovation, and promote educational achievements, there is the potential to change lives. These kinds of transformations of our way of life require the infrastructure of modern communication, and government has a role to play in assuring every community in America can develop that infrastructure. This country has a long history of ensuring that rural areas have the same access to communication technology as other places. In 1934, Congress mandated that every American, regardless of where they lived, receive basic telephone service at approximately the same rate, and established the universal service fund to provide Americans with that service. Unfortunately, in a tale that is too familiar, the program became a breeding ground for waste, corruption, an d grossly inefficient spending.
We need to widely reform the way we do business in Washington; to end wasteful spending that does little if anything to meet government's obligations to the American people. Government should accurately identify areas where the market truly is not working and provide companies that are willing to build the information infrastructure to serve these areas incentives like tax reductions and more generous depreciation.
I think we should establish a "People Connect Program" that rewards companies that offer high-speed Internet access services to underserved, low-income customers by allowing these companies to write off the cost of this service. The government should enlist the help of private/public partnerships to devise creative and successful solutions to the lack of access to information technology. In many places, cities and towns are working with businesses that have experience providing high-speed Internet services to share the cost of building and improving that service. Where companies are unwilling to build information infrastructure, the federal government can support towns through government-backed loans or by issuing bonds with a low interest rate.
An aggressive effort to knit together all of the United States with 21st century information networks will make location less of a factor in the potential for economic success. Instead, the prime determinant will be the skills, energy, imagination, and persistence of Americans -- attributes that have traditionally been in great supply in America, and certainly exist here, where people have always prided themselves on hard work and self-reliance.