4 ways Clinton tech plan would destroy US tech leadership

[Commentary] There is much to worry about in Hillary Clinton’s technology and innovation agenda as it provides a blueprint for diminishing US leadership in tech. Here are some of the features that may sound like they promote technology and innovation, but in reality drain value from customers and industry. The Clinton plan:

• Expands handouts to political allies: It will subsidize computer science teachers, provide grants to government schools for STEM education, subsidize more job training programs, fund business incubators, continue the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), and create a $25 billion Infrastructure Bank.
• Increases government role in broadband: The plan will expand subsidies from the federal government to cities, regions, and states to invest in dark fiber, broadband in recreation centers and transportation centers, and free public WiFi. Of course these programs will be wrought with political favoritism and waste.
• Makes empty promises of less regulation: The plan says that “localities may seek” (emphasis added) to streamline permitting processes, develop infrastructure maps and pursue “dig once” policies. It also says that Clinton would “challenge state and local governments to identify, review, and reform” barriers to new infrastructure competitors.
• Promises an open Internet, but delivers a closing one: The plan supports the Obama administration’s efforts to hand over Internet governance to an entity where governments may be the most powerful stakeholders. It also strongly endorses net neutrality, which continues to grow into the major barrier to customers getting the Internet services they want.

[Jamison is the director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center at the University of Florida and serves as its director of telecommunications studies]