Philip Wegmann: “You talked a minute ago about high speed internet and I wanted to ask you, Brendan Carr, one of the commissioners on the FCC, has expressed frustration that, despite the $42 billion that was included in the President’s infrastructure bill in 2021 through a program called the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Development program that not a single project is underway and not a single home has been connected to broadband as a result. Is — is that accurate? Can you tell —”

Perez: “I’ll have to talk to the families who have been connected as a result of middle mile programs. I was up in New Hampshire seven months —

Wegmann: “— so you’re [inaudible] this program, specifically?”

Perez: “— well, I don’t know. I did not get the precise funding stream through which the homes of people I met in New Hampshire are now connected or the library in Wisconsin is now connected … was something the President, the Vice President very strongly supported. It expired in May, I believe, of this year, and we spent a lot of time — we sent over a supplemental budget request, and by the way, almost 50 percent of people eligible for that subsidy are military families and — and that’s unfortunate that Congress — the Republicans in Congress chose not to extend that because more people participated in that program then we’re participating in food stamps.”

Wegmann: “So, this is not a small program. $42 billion. I mean that’s, that’s a big deal. Do — does the White House have an estimate of how many homes have been connected to broadband?”

Perez: “I don’t have that at hand, but I can certainly work with you to answer that question.”

Gutierrez: “One word that I did not hear in your remarks, and that’s Bidenomics. So, is this infrastructure spending part of Bidenomics?”

Perez: “This infrastructure spending is part of ensuring that every community in the country, you have safe infrastructure, you have infrastructure projects that are inspired by considerations of equity, so you’re not building I-43 and I-94 in Milwaukee by taking out 15,000 black homes and 1,500 black — um — businesses and people can understand that it’s a project that’s going to work for everyone. That’s — everything that the President has done, .. get a fair shake and making sure we’re addressing our climate imperatives and making sure we’re building an economy that works for everyone.”

Gutierrez: “But it’s not using the word Bidenomics, an acknowledgment that that messaging didn’t work.”
Perez: “It’s, you know, it’s about results and that’s what this tour is about — showing results from our investments.”

Gutierrez: “It was a yes or no question.”

Zeke: “You said the purpose of this is to remind people what the President has done for them. You also said taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, so how much if you account for what the budget is for the Biden promotional piece or the reminding voters of what the president has done for them — you know, his Air Force One travel, the events that he’s been holding — versus, you know, spending that money back in their communities.”

Tom Perez: “Well, it’s minuscule compared — look at the look at the investments that have been made over the course of the last three and a half years. They are unprecedented in scale and scope … to educate people about the fact that government can work. There have been a lot of folks over the course of a long period of time, who have tried to shake people’s faith in government and if there’s one thing I’ve seen over the course of the last three and a half years, and I’m also a former local elected official, when you’re working with mayors and county executives and — and they’re able and you’re and you’re working together with them, they’re the people that get seen in the supermarkets”

https://www.facebook.com/HygoNewsUSA/videos/3817936075111108
Q: Internet $42B not a single home has been connected? Acknowledgment Bidenomics didn’t work