Cruz Continues Fight for Internet Freedom

Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog ^ | November 17, 2014 | Amy Ridenour

[2ndDivisionVet]

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is continuing his fight to limit government interference into (and taxation of) the Internet, today releasing a compilation of comments he has received since his Washington Post op-ed and short video were released last week (you can watch the video here).

Here's a few of many (emphases were added by me):

"Sen. Ted Cruz got it right last week when he tweeted that Title II would be ObamaCare for the Internet."

-- L. Gordon Crovitz, former Wall Street Journal publisher and author of the Wall Street Journal's Information Age column

"Private Internet providers already compete with each other to provide broadband access to millions of Americans, and limiting their ability to sell their products how they see fit will stifle innovation and competition, not encourage it. Sen. Cruz is right that imposing new government controls on the Internet will lead to fewer choices, fewer opportunities, and higher prices."

-- Chris Chocola, President, Club for Growth

"The greatest threat to the Internet is the slow encroachment of government power. Public utility regulations lead to monopolies and slower service. Imposing Title II on the Internet would open a Pandora's box of larger broader government control worldwide. Senator Cruz's position was the bipartisan consensus in the 90's: Title II is unwise and unnecessary. Congress, not the FCC, should decide how to address hypothetical concerns about free speech and anticompetitive conduct -- while maintaining the regulatory light-touch that began under President Clinton and continued under Republicans. That 'Hands off the Net' approach has driven over $1.3 trillion in private broadband investment and allowed the Internet to flourish."

-- Berin Szoka, President, TechFreedom

"Senator Cruz has been a vocal opponent of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in May of 2013. The legislation, if passed, would create a dizzying maze of new sales tax mandates for hundreds of thousands of tech-enabled small businesses across the country. In addition, it would give unprecedented authority to state tax enforcement agents and allow them to cross borders and enforce their laws on businesses located in other states. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced his intention to try and move the Marketplace Fairness Act in the final weeks of Congress. However, Senator Cruz, along with a number of his colleagues in the House and Senate, have expressed their concern and opposition."

-- eBay

"Senator Cruz is right on target in warning that the Internet regulations President Obama seeks would destroy innovation and harm consumers. The FCC should officially foreclose the draconian option of reclassifying the Internet under Depression-era monopoly telephone rules by closing the Title II docket once and for all. Senator Cruz recognizes the dangers of turning back the clock on Internet freedom; it's time for the Administration to do the same."

-- Pete Sepp, President, National Taxpayers Union

"The Internet we've all grown to rely on, and it has been especially helpful to working moms like me, has come about in the absence of excessive government regulation. Sen. Cruz is right to be wary of the Internet power grab the White House has proposed, especially in the wake of the IRS and NSA scandals."

-- Sabrina Schaffer, Executive Director, Independent Women's Forum

There are more comments here. Don't take our free Internet for granted. Share this, Facebook it, Tweet it or just tell your Senators what you think before the Internet as we know it today is gone.

[montag813]

So what is Cruz’ answer? Let Comcast, AT&T and Google play favorites for the highest bid?

[ncalburt]

what are u inferring ?

[jsanders2001]

>”Senator Cruz has been a vocal opponent of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in May of 2013. The legislation, if passed, would create a dizzying maze of new sales tax mandates for hundreds of thousands of tech-enabled small businesses across the country. In addition, it would give unprecedented authority to state tax enforcement agents and allow them to cross borders and enforce their laws on businesses located in other states. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced his intention to try and move the Marketplace Fairness Act in the final weeks of Congress. However, Senator Cruz, along with a number of his colleagues in the House and Senate, have expressed their concern and opposition.”

Bingo. There’s your answer. They want Siphon even more money from our pockets. Their thirst for money will never be satisfied. Ever.

[2ndDivisionVet]

His staff could probably answer that question. They can be reached at (202) 224-5922 or to e-mail them use this form:
http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=email_senator

[JRandomFreeper]

Keep the government out of it. Or do you want the Congress to play favorites for the highest bid.

/johnny

[2ndDivisionVet]

He’s Reddit-ing Ted Cruz.

[JRandomFreeper]

And under what part of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution does the federal government have the authority to regulate the internet, or cable, or telephones?

/johnny

[ncalburt]

Your Peddling the DU talking points!

Your buddy Barry Wants to tax and shut down the conservative
Internet .

[re_nortex]

Go Ted go!

Abolish the FCC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NPR and PBS! Let liberty flourish! Banish lying, liberal websites. They purvey nothing but godless anti-American propaganda and present an existential threat to the Republic. Crush leftism in all forms! Restore America!

[re_nortex]

Well said, FRiend. Masked with the liberal phrase of "net neutrality", it's really a means to destroy Free Republic and others like it such as the Sarah Palin Channel. Because of the FCC, an agency of the meddling central government, I'm forced to have CBS, MSNBC and CNN. All I need from television is RFD-TV and, occasionally, Fox News. Ted Cruz will allow liberty to flourish and the leftist propaganda outlets (all controlled by hussein and his henchmen) will be eradicated.

Terms like "fairness" and "a level playing field" are a sure sign that hussein's tyrannical central government is out to destroy freedom. Crush the FCC!

[JRandomFreeper]

I'm all for stuffing the fed back in the constitutional box it came in.

/johnny

[SoConPubbie]

So what is Cruz’ answer? Let Comcast, AT&T and Google play favorites for the highest bid?

What is your answer, let Obama the Marxist and his FEC take away your freedoms where the Internet is concerned by regulations?

[Yaelle]

I have been having a long discussin with my college age son over this. Everyone he knows is for net neutrality because they are not happy with the power of the ISPs. They see it as these few big monopolistic corporations controlling what you do and how fast you do it. They want that changed. A lot of them seem to trust laws and government.

I showed him Cruz’s video and indeed, it is good. But we still need a solution to the controls put on us by the ISPs - we don’t want any big entity controlling us online. I wish Cruz would put out more about what can be done, not just how to fight government control of the web. How to keep it really free.

Maybe some smaller laws would help re the ISP’s? I don’t know. Interested to hear what can be done. We do not want to turn the Internet over to the government! But we do have a problem.

[VTenigma]

Preferable to letting the Feds get their hands on the internet. If anti trust and monopoly statutes were enforced Comcast, AT&T, and Google may well be neutered.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

"Sen. Ted Cruz got it right last week when he tweeted that Title II would be ObamaCare for the Internet." -- L. Gordon Crovitz, former Wall Street Journal publisher and author of the Wall Street Journal's Information Age column

Google et al supported and probably wrote Obamacare for the Internet.