for fun alternatives to watching TV. Or search the following categories:"December 8, 2005 -- FEELING, evidently, flush with (other people's) cash, the Senate has concocted a novel way to spend $3 billion: Create a new entitlement. The Senate has passed — and so has the House, with differences — an entitlement to digital television.
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The $990 million House version of this entitlement — call it "No Couch Potato Left Behind" — is (relatively) parsimonious: Consumers would get vouchers worth only $40, and would be restricted to a measly two vouchers per household. The Senate's more spacious entitlement would pay for most of the cost — $50 to $60 — of the converter boxes. But there is Republican rigor in this: Consumers would be required to pay $10. That is the conservatism in compassionate conservatism."
A RIGHT TO DIGITAL? by George Will
Comments: "No Couch Potato Left Behind"! I love it! It's too perfect. I'm glad someone finally noticed this fiasco. I find it utterly bizarre that Republicans and Democrats BOTH support this. They can't agree on food stamps but they can agree on making sure the poor can watch digital TV. What is up with that?
I wonder if George Will agrees with the $100 billion dollar giveaway of the digital airwaves. The three billion dollar payoff to couch potatoes is small potatoes compared to the payoff to the networks.