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Technology In the White House
by Paul McGoldrick
I could write a whole series of pieces about the current White House’s ability to conveniently lose millions of e-mails; I could write many pieces on the belief of the then-Defense-Secretary Rumsfeld and the White House that America’s weapons are so high-tech that they cannot be defeated by anybody else or by any means (did no one learn anything from Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and the rest?) But instead I want to look ahead and see what the world might get in the White House come January 2009.
During the Clinton administration, the technology sector did well – for the most part. Whether that was because of his administration’s intervention in high tech, or because of its hands-off approach, or even whether it was just dumb luck being President at the right time I cannot know or say. But I do think that the high tech community relished those years and would, for the most part, have been behind a Hillary succession in the hope that the same progress might return.
That is now off the table – as far as we know – and unless there is an accident, or some other calamity, Barack Obama is going to be the man leading the Democratic Party offensive fighting John McCain (again, assuming no late surprises). Which of these two will better represent and bolster technology?
Starting with Obama: in his announcement speech in Springfield, Illinois, Obama said, amongst his other remarks, “Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.”
Saying that in 2007, as one of his core messages, was a very good sign of things to come. For a man of his generation, he should, of course, be relatively well educated as to technology and its uses. He is unlikely to blunder, as did President George W Bush, into talking about The Internets or The Google (which of the Internets do you think he uses for The Google?) And he certainly would not be caught in total ignorance of the whole scheme of things like his Senate colleague Ted Stevens (R, Alaska) with his comedic, meandering (senile?) performance on “the Internet is a series of tubes.” Presumably the alleged kickbacks in home improvements, for which he now stands indicted, didn’t include Internet training.
Obama has not disappointed in some of the technology issues his web site approaches. For some time he has been taking confirmed, broadcast, positions on:
- Protecting the openness of the Internet
- Encouraging diversity in media ownership
- Protecting children while developing the Sesame Street of the digital age
- Using technology to improve our rights to privacy
- Making government decisions based on the best-available scientifically-valid evidence
- Employing technologies, including blogs, wikis, etc to modernize information sharing
- Appointing the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer for best-in-class infrastructure
- Deploying next-generation broadband
- Redefining broadband (FCC currently defines it as any system exceeding 200 kbit/s!
- Re-examining the use of wireless spectrum apart from purely commercial use
- Bringing broadband to schools, libraries and hospitals
- Using technology to lower the cost of health care
- Doubling federal science and research funding for clean energy projects
- Emphasizing technology literacy in education
- Fostering home-grown innovation to grow high-paying jobs in technology
- Modernizing public safety networks without antiquated 1970s and 1980s technology
- Investing in the sciences
- Making the R&D tax credit permanent
- Reforming immigration to encourage training of Americans for high-tech jobs
- Equalizing the international playing field for US products and services
- Protecting US IP abroad
- Protecting US IP at home
- Reforming the patent system
I cannot fault any of those goals, although a President’s ability to enact changes rests as much with a consenting Congress as anything else. Certainly, in his campaign, he has used technology extremely well to bring an unprecedented number of citizens into the political process, in both eliciting contributions and electrifying grass-roots interest. When you read the various polls you might also remind yourself that many of these enthused people probably don’t receive or factor into the results of those querying land-line-only telephone calls from the pollsters.
On the John McCain front, the only talk about technology issues on his site lies in his policies about energy, which seem to be more and more in line with the Republican mainstream for more offshore drilling – when we don’t even have the refinery capacity to handle it, and the small, consistently-ignored fact that most of the US offshore oil is too heavy for petroleum anyway. He is also very much in favor of NASA getting back into space and establishing a base on the Moon to prepare for a manned flight to Mars. Unfortunately, his site chillingly says, “He believes support for a continued US presence in space is of major importance to America's future innovation and security.” For those of us who have believed that most of what NASA has done in the last twenty years has actually been about military goals, that “security” rationale raises large red flags.
He is also reported to be of the opinion that, “No Child Left Behind has focused our attention on the realities of how students perform against a common standard. John McCain believes that we can no longer accept low standards for some students and high standards for others. In this age of honest reporting, we finally see what is happening to students who were previously invisible.” Anyone in the education sector will testify that the totally unfunded program has simply been an exercise in making “teaching to the test” a requirement in lieu of real education.
But it has now been reported that McCain – who for many years (1997 – 2001, 2003 – 2005) was chairman of the Senate committee (Science and Technology) that dealt with telecommunications issues – is going to be helped out in his technology intentions by Michael Powell, former Chairman of the FCC, who is going to advise him, presumably on a rather more market-driven basis. Powell was supposed to have completed his work by the end of July 2008, but now whatever is produced is going to be upstaged, totally, by the Beijing Olympics starting, as I write, in three days.
What is being talked about are probable proposals by Powell to:
- Lower capital gains taxes to encourage investment (i.e., put more money in investors’ pockets)
- Allow more skilled workers to remain in the US (i.e., create more H-1B visa slaves)
- Promote open technology markets (i.e., shift more jobs overseas)
- Create a permanent R&D tax credit (way to go!)
I am so glad I don’t have a vote in November. The comparison between candidates is just too difficult for my brain to get around.
</removes sarcasm tag>
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