Behold the New America Foundation (NAF), yet another Washington, D.C. entity laying claim to high-browed, high-minded non-partisanship.
The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States….
Too often, these challenges have proven impervious to conventional party politics and incremental proposals.
The first question that leaps to mind is: Why a New America? Why do they want to rid us of the Old America? Sounds an awful lot like President Barack Obama wanting to “fundamentally transform” the Old Girl.
NAF elaborates:
The foundation’s mission is animated by the American ideal that each generation will live better than the last. That ideal is today under strain.
Our education and health care systems are struggling with problems of quality, cost and access. The country requires creative means to address its fiscal challenges and pay for needed public, social and environmental investments.
Sounds an awful lot like a Leftist litany to me.
Who pays for this little show? And by “little show” we mean one that had a 2010 outlay of $15,695,563. Why, it’s Leftist joints like:
$1,000,000 (in 2011)
The Ford Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Eric and Wendy Schmidt
$250,000-$999,999 (in 2011)
Open Society Institute (a George Soros outfit)
Google, Inc.
Wait, go back – Eric Schmidt? Is that the President Obama Uber-Crony?
Eric is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology….
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Doubles Down On His Support Of President Obama
Some Perspective on Obama’s Bromance with Eric Schmidt
Why yes it is. And wait: Google gave somewhere between $250K and $1 million – and their former Chairman gave an additional $1 million-plus?
Schmidt was Google’s Chief Executive Officer from 2001-2011. When they were very busy pushing for – and funding the push for – the Huge Government Internet policy known as Network Neutrality. Hmmm….
Well, what are some of the things on which NAF is working? Shocker – they are all for the all-encompassingly-awful Net Neutrality.
The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for Internet Freedom
The Next Big Battle in Internet Policy
When your smartphone can talk to your fridge, network neutrality will be more important than ever.
NAF is also all for Government being your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Freedom to Compete With Telecom Networks
A solution to allow more Internet options at a lower price would be for the government to subsidize development of networks….
Let’s examine this for a bit. NAF wants to tax private broadband companies – and give their money to government-created competitors to their businesses. In neither the Old or a New America is this “fair.”
Not to mention government-funded broadband has been a complete, abysmal failure.
Not mentioned is the $7.2 billion of broadband “stimulus” tucked into the fatty, flabby folds of the 2009 $1 trillion “Stimulus” bill. Which was an unmitigated disaster.
The Internet ‘Stimulus’-Just as Destructive as the Rest of the ‘Stimulus’
Yet Another Terrible Internet ‘Stimulus’ Project
Broadband Stimulus Projects Need Oversight, GAO Report Says
The General Accounting Office (GAO) issued that report in August 2010. Did the Obama Administration do anything to address the myriad problems detailed therein? Of course not.
GAO Finds Problems with Broadband Stimulus Efforts
That report came out in August 2012.
Two years later, exact same assessment of the utterly unaltered $7.2 billion broadband Internet spending mess.
Not to mention that when confronted on this litany of catastrophe, NAF officials devolve into befuddled mumbling about a “non-competitive marketplace.” Which:
A) Is fundamentally untrue, and
B) Has nothing to do with addressing the government’s horrendous execution as a broadband provider.
We could go on, and on, and on – NAF is working on nearly the full panoply of hard Left issue positions. But you by now get the idea.
Oh – and they’re hiring. Who’s the newest person to board the Good Ship Non-Partisan?
Some liberals say (Gene) Kimmelman helped revitalize a division that had grown soft under President George W. Bush.
But industry officials and some conservatives say the department’s recent antitrust actions exemplify the Obama administration’s lack of business understanding.
Gene Kimmelman to Direct Project, Serve as Adviser to New America (Foundation)’s OTI and Public Interest and Consumer Groups.
And we know all about those “Public Interest and Consumer Groups.”
As for the “consumer interest” – let’s rationally examine who has a real stake in it.
Is it these Leftist groups – who represent no one and nothing save for a shaved shard of a pro-government, free market-loathing constituency consisting almost exclusively of themselves?
Or is it businesses – who seek to everyday deliver whatever it is the most consumers possible are interested in? So as to entice these consumers to hire or buy from them?
Obviously, it is the latter.
Just another brick in the wall the New America Foundation and their Leftist cohorts are building between the American people – and freedom and success.