Free Republic

President Obama drew a sharp rebuke from senior Republicans on Capitol Hill for pushing broad regulation of Internet broadband service, with lawmakers warning that such a move would imperil the “thriving Internet economy and the American jobs it creates.” The president touched off the battle after issuing a lengthy statement on Monday on so-called “net neutrality.” Staking out his position, the president called on the Federal Communications Commission to more heavily regulate Internet providers and treat broadband much as it would any other public utility.

Get ready for the Department of Broadband. On Monday, President Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify the Internet as a public utility—like water or electricity—under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. The goal: “to protect net neutrality,” Mr. Obama said in a White House YouTube video, an ironic venue for announcing a monumentally bad idea that could strangle the Internet. For years the FCC has been inching toward imposing net-neutrality rules, which are sold as a way to ban Internet service providers from discriminating against content providers. In reality such rules would dictate what ISPs...