Who’s to Blame for BEAD? Join in an Open Discussion

Why did implementing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program take so long?

For Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, authors of the book Abundance and leaders of the movement by the same name, the answer is clear. Democrat’s obsession with complex regulations and their desire to pack all of their policy priorities in a single piece of legislation–what the authors term “everything bagelism”–spelled doom for the BEAD program from the start.

Klein’s excoriation of the program’s complex, 14-step process on Jon Stewart’s weekly show delighted its host, and drew criticism from former Biden administration officials. It also caught the attention of Elon Musk, who reposted a clip of Klein’s critiques that was viewed over 28 million times on X.  According to Klein and Thompson, BEAD would have been better served by stripping extraneous policy requirements from the program and focusing on getting money out the door quickly.