The Digital Homestead Act

[Commentary] In the best government giveaway since cheese handouts from the Reagan Administration, Congress has voted to provide consumers $40 vouchers to buy digital-to-analog converter boxes. Essentially, Congress is budgeting $1.5 billion for millions of Americans who don't need the money -- so that they can keep using obsolete technology. Moreover, most people won't notice a change in 2009. They will already have digital TVs (all new sets sold after mid-2007 must be digital), or they will still be subscribing to cable or satellite services that can send digital signals even to analog TVs. One universally acknowledged truth -- even in Congress -- is that the people who gobble up many of those vouchers will not be needy. Millions of households with satellite dishes and new big-screen TVs also have at least one old analog set lying around, and each family is entitled to two $40 vouchers. As we learned when many of the non-poor joined long queues for Reagan cheese, Americans would stand in line for marmoset pelts if they were labeled "free." To encourage such grabbiness in 2009, Congress has earmarked $5 million for voucher advertising. Mark your calendars.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113530781228130250.html?mod=todays_us_we...
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* NAB Statement on DTV Legislation
http://www.nab.org/newsroom/pressrel/statements/122105_Sen_Budget_Recon_...
* TIA Urges Final Passage of DTV Legislation
http://www.tiaonline.org/media/press_releases/index.cfm?parelease=05-93
* Diverse Group of High-Tech Leaders Urge Lawmakers To Finalize DTV Legislation
http://www.ntca.org/ka/ka-3.cfm?content_item_id=3904&folder_id=522