It's Hard for Good Policy to Get Noticed in DC
First: A somber and resonate Memorial Day to All. The best of us - are no longer with the rest of us.
Ok….
As I’m sure most of you have noticed? Our federal government is a titanic, monstrous mess.
In all of human history, there has almost certainly never been an entity this dysfunctional and disorganized.
And the fact we have allowed something this messed up - to get this huge? May be the most grievous error in human history.
And swimming around this HUGE Great White Shark of ineptitude? Is a MASSIVE school of lobbyist Remora. Who have built incredibly comfortable lives - pretending everything in DC is great, and that they can steer the Shark in any direction you pay them to steer it.
(How incredibly comfortable are these lobbyist lives? Nine of the 20 wealthiest counties in the United States - are located in Virginia and Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.)
So…I would argue the greatest problems the US faces? Are domestic and economic.
The federal government is almost $40 trillion in debt. In 2026 we will surpass the $1 trillion mark - just in annual interest payments on said debt.
The 2025 US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $30.8 trillion. So the debt - is currently 125% of GDP.
And the GDP - ain’t nowhere near keeping up with the debt. Because compound interest on $40 trillion grows faster than any economy possibly could.
Oh: And Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be killing tens of millions of jobs - which will cut ever-more-deeply into the GDP.
Oh: And Social Security (SSI) and Medicare? Are $175+ trillion short in the next 30 years. Because the programs are terrible. And because we have the greatest portion of our population entering age-eligibility for them.
All of which (and more) is why I argue the greatest problems the US faces? Are domestic and economic.
Except there are just about ZERO lobbyists working to reduce the deficits and debt. In either the budget - or the two retirement programs.
DC is instead rigidly insistent on addressing everything else - ANYTHING else - besides the debt and deficits.
DC is yet again annexing and regime changing and endless war-ing all over the planet. All off the books, of course. We’ll just print the money for all that - and put it on our tab. Plus interest. Plus inflation.
Meanwhile, every single spending bill DC passes (because they haven’t passed an actual budget since 1996)? Has larger deficits than the last spending bill DC passed.
The alleged less government champions in the Republican Party? Just passed a Big Beautiful budget - with deficits larger than when the ones the profligate Democrats passed when they last ran DC.
As the three-decade dearth of actual budgets reminds? The federal government is completely incompetent and dysfunctional.
The federal government Shark’s attention? Is pretty much only drawn to the lobbyist Remoras wielding the most money. Which is why the Big Businesses - Big Tech, the Big Banks, etc - dominate DC.
So what are you to do if you aren’t a comparatively Big Biz - but you need something out of DC?
And what if it’s - <GASP> - something that actually helps…everyone? Not just the Big Bizs the lobbyist Remoras represent?
You have to repeatedly state your case as firmly and loudly as you can. And do your best to ensure it drifts into the Shark’s view.
The Shark wants to at least pretend it’s occasionally doing good by We the People. The objective is to give it the best opportunity to have that good - be your good.
To wit: We are all Internet denizens now. And what was once a slow dial-up wired connection - that then became a faster cable wired connection? Is now almost entirely a wireless connection.
You’ve heard of 5G and 6G, right? Those are the Fifth and Sixth Generation wireless networks.
Wireless is the solve for almost all of our connectivity problems. Wireless is WAY less expensive to build-out than is wired. And “too rural” goes from a major connectivity impediment - to basically a non-issue.
Wireless Internet - requires wireless spectrum. Think of spectrum as invisible real estate - upon which you build the networks that connect everyone to everyone else.
There exists three “bands” of spectrum (strips, not musical groups). Low, mid and high.
Spectrum is a finite resource. And most of it (about 60%) - is controlled by the federal government.
So if you’re trying to improve the private sector wireless Internet? You need to get the Shark’s attention. Twice, actually.
You must get the government to more efficiently allocate its use of its spectrum. Meaning consolidate its efforts on the spectrum - so as to clear more of it for private use.
You must make sure the ratio of licensed and unlicensed spectrum accurately represents the needs of the marketplace.
When the Shark makes spectrum available to the private sector? It can do so as either licensed or unlicensed.
Unlicensed is the free-for-all WiFi stuff you use in most public areas.
Licensed is required to build the 5G - and then 6G, and then 7G, and then… - that we need to keep the country’s prowess progressing. You want to beat China to those punches? Licensed spectrum is how you do it.
Except the ratio between licensed and unlicensed - is a little ratio-ed.
The current main focus of DC spectrum policy - is the lower mid-band. The government still holds ~59%. Unlicensed private holdings? ~36%. Which means only ~5% is licensed.
So one would hope the Shark will soon again do something good for We the People. And release more of said spectrum.
And release more of it - for licensed use.
Because that’s what it takes to compete with China.
Because that’s what the marketplace - and We the People - need.