The excuse they’re using is that not all Americans have sufficient access to broadband internet.  That’s the “crisis” they’ve manufactured so that they can solve it by expanding government power over the internet.

WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission began to lay the groundwork for a bigger federal role in the broadband business Wednesday, outlining the hurdles the U.S. needs to overcome to improve the availability of high-speed Internet access.

The FCC identified a number of issues the government should address, including the high cost of laying new broadband lines in rural areas, a lack of airwaves for wireless Web access and ill-informed consumers. ...

“This focus on broadband is a reflection of a recognition that the U.S. is lagging behind,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday at the agency’s monthly meeting.

The FCC’s latest broadband moves are part of a multi-stage process mapped out by Mr. Genachowski for examining whether American consumers have suffered from the largely hands-off approach the U.S. has taken on Internet infrastructure.

Taking a step back from the government flak-speak for a moment, how can anyone argue that we’ve got an internet connection problem in this country?  I live in North Dakota, the 4th least densely populated states in the nation.  And while this may be anecdotal, I don’t know of a single person (including people who live way off in the boonies) who doesn’t have high-speed internet or couldn’t at least obtain it if they wanted it.

Further, everyone here has access to at least dial up.

So I’m not exactly overwhelmed with a crisis that consists of maybe a few people living out in the boonies having to settle for dial-up instead of broadband internet. If there were any significant number of people who fell into that category in a specific area you can bet there would be ISP’s jumping at the chance to serve them.  And if there aren’t enough people to warrant a private sector business serving them, why in the world should the taxpayers have to subsidize it?

Really, the current liberal push on broadband internet access is eerily reminiscent of FDR’s push for rural electrification.  In the 1930’s the electrification of America was moving swiftly, but not very fast in rural areas.  Obviously, there’s more incentive to bring electricity to densely populated areas first.  But FDR made it a political issue and pushed for government involvement in the electrification of rural America (grabbing no small amount of power for the government along the way).  This set up a defeat for FDR at the Supreme Court level, something that prompted his infamous effort to pass a bill that would have allowed him to appoint a new, younger Justice for every sitting Justice over the age of 70.

Something that would have populated the court

Now the liberals are doing it with broadband internet access.  Under the guise of pushing broadband internet access into the few areas it doesn’t already exist the government is angling for a power grab over what is fast becoming our largest and most important media delivery system.

As Seton Motley points out at Newsbusters, Obama’s FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is one who feels that internet access is a “universal right” that must be distributed by government.  And, of course, if the government is in charge of distributing internet access then the government gets the power to say which content we can and cannot access.

Much like FDR’s efforts on electrification all those years ago, this isn’t about access.  This is a government power grab.  America doesn’t have a problem with internet access.  Those that want internet, and can afford it, can get it.