Reply #14: This part of the bill is probably a good thing

[groundloop]

I don't believe the bill specifies how big a peice of the pie that Verizon will get, they're only one of the players involved. And I think most economists agree that building infrastructure, such as this is proposing, is a very good way to spend bailout dollars in terms of creating jobs. And, as was previously mentioned, Verizon is mostly union, and for the most part instead of laying people off they're offering early retirements and buy-outs (in my mind anyway that's preferable to layoffs).

Not only will the telecom companies have to hire cable installers, they will have to buy the cable, buy the hardware attached to each end of the cables, hire people to run and service the equipment, and so on. The companies that manufacture fiber optic cable will be purchasing fiber, hiring people in their manufacturing plants, they have R&D and quality people that will be kept busy, and so on.

As for the comments that this bill doesn't enforce net-neutrality, I don't believe a spending bill like this is the proper place for that. The FCC will have to write those rules, and I believe that Obama's new FCC people have said they're in favor of net neutrality