American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
February 27, 2009
Though I’m not affiliated with any political party, and have been extremely busy as of late, I keep getting prodded to make a comment or two about the oodles of dollars flowing in from the Stimulus Bill.
Right or wrong about the package–it’s a lot of future debt…and I’m not comfortable with the speed in which it was enacted.
What remains missing, in the overall scheme of things, are the fraud and violation of fiduciary duty criminal charges. The longer the Department of Justice waits, the more time the Real Smart Guys can hide assets.
My overriding concern with the “funds” is that, within a few years, we will find ourselves with millions of dollars in fraud and abuse. Let’s face it-–money will flow to political cronies and schemers, who will eventually surface in future years as flat-out criminals. I am not psychic. It just seems to be an acceptable norm in America (think Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
Hell, if you can get a Cabinet post or Congressional seat without previously paying your Federal income taxes, what are a few misplaced bucks amongst friends?
The Telecom piece of the pie has more mystery at the moment. The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) portion for RLECs is pretty straight forward. The RUS has been conducting programs for years, so they are applying existing “rules.” RUS history on these loans has had a default rate of 30%–and that’s after the RLEC audits where RUS funds were used to pay dividends and for other non-qualified uses of the loan/grant programs. I expect history to repeat itself.
The other piece (non-RLEC) of the Telecom slice is being administered by the NTIA. The NTIA is commencing meetings next week to receive input on “various issues” and definitions of the program. At this point there is more unknown than known.
Yes, yours truly will be traveling to the beltway in the next week or two to express my views and provide input. Quite frankly, I just want to be on the record for posterity if some pink elephants enter the room and get ignored.
Written by Dave Rusin - Telecom Executive
Posted by wbrache | Filed Under American telecom, Wall Street Bankers and Telecom
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