FCC Makes-Up Jobs Claims

We have seen a wide array of Barack Obama Administration wings make up jobs numbers and claims in an attempt to bolster un-bolsterable policies.

First there were the gigs – not created, but allegedly “created or saved” – as the supposed result of the simply awful February 2009 nearly $1 trillion “stimulus” bill.

That didn’t play very well – it was roundly, rightly ridiculed for its obvious absurdity.

So when it came to the recent General Motors – i.e. Government Motors – claims to job wizardry, the Administration masters knew they had to come up with something different.

They didn’t get very creative:

GM announces it will add or preserve 4,000 jobs

GM to add or preserve 4,000 jobs, invest $2B in plants

General Motors $2 billion investment expected preserve up to 2,000 local jobs

“Added or preserved” – not “created or saved.” Get it?

The Obama Administration has reached a new zenith of ridiculousness with the latest from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Which is now trying to feed us jobs (and economic opportunity) to which Americans are “denied access.”

So says the press release for the FCC’s newest 706 Report – which the Commission writes and publishes as an alleged assessment of the private broadband market.

We already warned that it was a scam-in-waiting – to follow last year’s scam-that-was.

Last year, the FCC’s National Broadband Plan reported:

290 million Americans–95% of the U.S. population—live in housing units with access to terrestrial, fixed broadband infrastructure capable of supporting actual download speeds of at least 4 Mbps.

Last year, remember, the FCC gave this impressive private sector effort – an F.

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So let us move to this year. Where we find that the FCC’s most recent broadband report says that 98% of U.S. Census tracts have at least one broadband provider, and 85% of U.S. Census tracts have access to at least two (including wireless).

The FCC gives this an F?

Indeed they do. And they claim that the scant 2% of Americans not having access to broadband is somehow “denying access” to gigs and fiscal prospects to “approximately 26 million Americans.”

The latest Broadband Progress Report to Congress from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reveals that approximately 26 million Americans, mostly in rural communities located in every region of the country, are denied access to the jobs and economic opportunity made possible by broadband.

(Emphasis – and absurdity – theirs, not mine.)

Of all the Obama Administration’s totally made-up and un-provable jobs claims, this has to be the most phantasmagorical.

What’s the solution? Why more government, of course.

Without action by the FCC in partnership with the states and the private sector, prospects for broadband service in many of the areas cited in the Report will remain unacceptably low.

Never mind the utter, repeated, dismal failure of the past government broadband efforts – or the fact that many of the states don’t want anything to do with the government and its action.

And (of course) the Commission plays all the typical, tired Leftist racial grievance group cards:

The Report finds the problem especially acute among low-income Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, seniors, and residents of Tribal areas.

(Emphasis – and absurdity – again theirs.)

Reminds of the old joke where God lets the (unbelievably biased) New York Times know He is ending the world. Their headline:

World Ends Tomorrow. Low-income Americans, African-Americans, Hispanics, Seniors, and Residents of Tribal Areas Hardest Hit!

As we said in advance of this 706 Report inanity:

For the FCC to allegedly “justify” their ever-increasing, illegal encroachments on private sector broadband, they have to say that private sector broadband is failing. Which is a flat-out lie.

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So they must pretend that what is undoubtedly the most successful portion of the private sector – possibly ever – is failing. To “warrant” their more illegal actions to come.

Their desired ends justify ANY – even these most absurd – means.

The FCC’s 706 Report is great – if you’re looking to line a cage or wrap a fish.

It is unmitigated Leftist ideological hackery.

It is a fundamentally unserious assessment of the nation’s amazingly prosperous private broadband market.