Tech Questions on Sideline in Presidential Campaign, ITAA Says
Technology matters should be more prominent in the presidential campaign, the Information Technology Association of America said at a conference Tuesday. “Technology is really not on the radar screen” of either major candidate, said ITAA President Phil Bond, who challenged Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., to go head-to-head in a debate on where they stand. The new president needs to set a pro-technology agenda, he said, but both candidates get an “incomplete” on offering a vision for technology’s role in the U.S. economy.
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Agreeing that the new president needs to set a “pro technology tone,” Obama’s technology spokesman said the candidate’s Web site offers proof that he is committed to doing something different from what the typical politician does. Obama has set up easy-to-use social networking tools that solicit and encourage public participation, said Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor and co-director of the Initiative on Global Markets.
Obama envisions using the same technology tools in the government he would lead, Goolsbee said: The public would be invited to play an interactive role in shaping policy. “Hundreds of thousands of people have signed up” on the site to give their input on Obama’s policy positions, Goolsbee said. If people disagree with him, “they go on his website and complain … but we do not go and shut them down.” Obama’s policies are about “glorifying and promoting the use of technology and its importance for the economy and the democracy.”
“You can read the plan; the question is what will it be next year,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s technology adviser and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. Holtz-Eakin said Obama has changed his mind on several important matters, such as the recently enacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill that offers telecom companies retroactive immunity in the administration’s warrantless surveillance after Sept. 11. Obama voted for the bill after having said he opposed immunity.
McCain has a “long history” of supporting a favorable investment environment for technology, Holtz-Eakin said. McCain also has put his career at risk by promoting technology positions that put him at odds with his party, Holtz-Eakin said. McCain knows how to “reach across the aisle to get things done,” Holtz-Eakin said.
Both advisers said their candidates support changes in the universal service program and the possibility of its supporting broadband deployment to underserved areas. “The FCC needs to redefine what broadband means,” Goolsbee said. Revamping USF is among a number of steps Obama wants to pursue to promote broadband. Holtz-Eakin said getting broadband to all U.S. communities is a “primary commitment” for McCain.