>On Jan 2, 2008 11:51 AM, Wade Preston Shearer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Why is there a budget for this at all? Television is not a necessity. > It angers me that my tax dollars are being used to buy home theater > components for the masses. A coupon wasn't available a few years ago > when I purchased my HD tuner. >
This is NOT a home theatre equipment subsidy, all these boxes do is down convert ATSC to NTSC. There are only a small handful of different models of boxes being subsidized here and they are really nothing more than tuners. Regardless of all that though, the fact remains that there are millions of elderly and/or home bound people who may be left without TV service for such vital things as Emergency Broadcasts and even mundane niceties like the evening news. Personally I wouldn't want my mother who is quite elderly and not really very technical at all, to lose her TV service just because she can't afford a new set. This is for people like that, not for people like you and me, to whom the purchase of a new TV doesn't require a choice between buying food or medicine or paying rent. That was my purpose in notifying everyone about this new subsidy, in the hopes that they will know people who will really need this, and help them by answering questions, give them help to fill the forms, etc. All before the subsidy pool gets dried up by people who may not really need this. Sincerely, Steve Morrey /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
