McCain Tech Platform Pushes More Incentives, Less Regulation

The U.S. should avoid “burdensome regulation” that could hurt the Internet, McCain said. “Government should have to prove regulation is needed, rather than have entrepreneurs prove it is not,” he said. Disdaining preemptive rules on net neutrality, he instead endorsed an enforcement-based policy. McCain also backs anti-piracy efforts “both on the Internet and off,” he said.

McCain wants lower taxes and more incentives for the tech industry, he said. To encourage innovation, he would keep capital gains taxes low and cut the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, he said. McCain would institutionalize the research and development tax credit, setting it equal to 10 percent of R&D wages, he said. He would allow companies to write off the costs of new equipment or technology in the first year, he said. McCain aims to keep the Internet tax free, and opposes new state and local taxes and fees on wireless services, he said. If elected he will promote fair trade agreements and backs lower tariffs on American products, he said.

McCain wants to see private outlays to bring broadband to underserved areas, he said. He seeks tools to “accurately identify” unserved and underserved areas, with incentives to companies willing to invest in infrastructure for such areas, he said, endorsing private-public partnerships. Local government should take over “where private industry does not answer the call because of market failures or other obstacles,” he said.

McCain would “fully fund” the America Competes Act to reverse downward trends in math and science educational results, he said. He supports grants to educate minorities and low-income students on digital and wireless technology, he said. To keep foreign talent in the U.S., McCain would mandate more H-1B visas, he said. “Hiring skilled foreign workers to fill critical shortages benefits not only innovative companies, but also our economy,” he said.

McCain wants reform and more resources for the Patent Office, he said. “The lack of an affordable, reliable means to ensure that the Government only grants valid patents has led to overly broad, frivolous lawsuits designed to force innovative companies into big settlements,” he said. As president McCain will seek international agreements and enforcement efforts, he said.

Reed Hundt, former FCC chairman, contested McCain’s scenarios. The R&D tax credit would mean an $8 billion hand- out to “existing firms even if they added no new employees” in R&D and “made no new investment,” he said in a Thursday blog post. The plan would “support the status quo,” doing nothing “to encourage new investment or new job creation,” Hundt said. Hundt disputed McCain’s idea of tax incentives to get more broadband to underserved areas. “Given that we have about 45 million households without broadband,” the tax break would cost about $22.5 billion a year -- $8 billion for AT&T and Verizon alone, he said. Hundt condemned McCain’s resistance to net neutrality regulation. Enforcement alone “provides no predictability for investors, no assurance for Americans, and of course plenty of opportunity for lawyers and lobbyists to capture the process,” he said.

Democrats Talk Tech

The Democrats promise a national broadband strategy in a draft platform released Friday. The plan will “especially” target rural areas, enabling “every American household, school, library and hospital to connect to a world-class communications infrastructure,” it said. The party envisions assigning a national chief technology officer “to enhance the functioning, transparency, and expertise of government,” it said. That includes making a national interoperable public safety network, it said. As McCain does, the Democratic Party wants to implement the America Competes Act. Afterward, it will “double federal funding for basic research” and make permanent the R&D tax credit, it said.

The Democrats want more online privacy protection, with government and business accountable for breaches, it said. It supports “constitutional protections and judicial oversight on any surveillance program involving Americans,” it said. “We will review the current Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.” The party rejects “illegal wire-tapping of American citizens” and the use of national security letters to spy on citizens not suspected of crime, it said.

The party wants “open-source” government, created “using technology to make government more transparent, accountable and inclusive,” it said. Agencies would have to “conduct significant business in public and release all relevant information,” it said. An online, searchable database would include federal grants, contracts, earmarks, loans and lobbyist contacts with federal officials, it said. Government data and videos of significant agency meetings would be posted online, and “non-emergency” bills passed by Congress would go online for five days of public viewing before being signed into law, it said. Cabinet officials would have to have “periodic national online town hall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.”