Dole: Telecom Bill a Giveaway

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Should American families be taxed to enrich the shareholders of powerful companies like Disney, Time Warner, and TCI? Raising that question in Thursday's New York Times, columnist William Safire reports that Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole told him that the sweeping telecommunications reform bill, already passed by the House and Senate and now in conference to resolve differences, effectively loans telecom giants immensely valuable new digital bandwidths worth an estimated $70 billion. "This is a big, big corporate welfare project," Safire says Dole told him. "Here we're cutting Medicaid and doing all the painful things while we lend them the spectrum for 12 years. Why shouldn't they pay for it?" Dole and Senate Commerce Committee chairman Larry Pressler have argued that these channels could easily be rented or auctioned. Though powerful media lobbying has squelched that idea on Capitol Hill and in the Administration up to now, TIME's John Dickerson reports the issue will likely be revisited now that Dole has taken a strong stand. "Contrary to many reports, the bill is in trouble," he says, "and Dole's intervention will have a big impact. Senator John McCain and members of Congress are working very hard on this issue as well." Dickerson says resolution of this and other outstanding issues in the legislation is not likely to be achieved before February.