Bush focuses on Internet access
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — President Bush, hunting for votes in hotly contested Sun Belt states, said Friday his administration is working toward wiring homes throughout America with high-speed Internet access by 2007.
“We’ve got to make sure this country’s on the leading edge of broadband technology,” Bush said. It is vital, he added, to open “new highways of knowledge” to spread innovations in education, medicine and other areas, and keep the country competitive in global trade.
Bush also said the tax cuts enacted since he took office were largely responsible for the record high rate of home ownership, a bright spot in the economy he highlighted in New Mexico and again in Phoenix en route to a weekend at his Texas ranch.
During the last three years, Bush has sporadically sought to focus public attention on expanding the number of homes connected to high-speed Internet providers such as DSL and cable. But his call for “universal, affordable access” by 2007 was new.
It was a cause sure to resonate with voters still exasperated by slow dial-up Internet connections, or none at all.
In an outdoor speech here, the president stopped short of promising he would reach the goal by 2007, saying instead that “we ought to have” cheap high-speed access everywhere. Nor did he offer a detailed plan on how he hoped to achieve it.
But his administration has been working at it behind the scenes. Last month, the Federal Communication Commission voted to write rules for a third way to bring high-speed Internet service to homes: through conventional electric lines, where a homeowner could plug a modem into an electrical outlet.
In November, the FCC expanded the frequencies that wireless devices could use to provide high-speed Internet connections for computers and other electronic equipment.
At the same meeting, the commission voted to make it easier for rural health care providers to tap into federal funds to subsidize Internet connections. The high-speed connections allow rural hospitals to obtain diagnoses and other medical assistance from better-equipped medical facilities in more populated areas.
In his Albuquerque speech, Bush warned lawmakers not to impose taxes on high-speed access. A temporary ban on such taxes expired last fall. The House has passed legislation to make it permanent.
The Internet remarks were part of a speech largely devoted to homeownership. Bush said the current 68 percent homeownership rate was a record high, and he credited both low interest rates and the tax cuts he pushed through Congress in 2001 and 2003.
He visited New Mexico and Arizona just over two months ago, but returned Friday, reflecting the urgency he places on winning both states in this year’s election. Bush lost New Mexico by 366 votes and won Arizona by fewer than 100,000. Friday was his seventh trip to New Mexico, with five electoral votes, and eighth to Arizona, with 10 electoral votes. One-time rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., greeted Bush with a smile as he touched down in Phoenix.
“I am glad to be in New Mexico,” Bush told admirers in Albuquerque, who chanted, “Four more years!”
As he left, however, several protesters flashed obscene gestures at his limousine. They carried signs that read, “Bush Lied: What Weapons of Mass Destruction?” and “Don’t trade your blood for Iraq oil.”