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Posted on 02/10/2015 4:54:17 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
The FCC has attempted to regulate the internet twice in the past. On both occasions Federal courts ruled that the FCC didn’t have the authority to regulate the internet. That of course won’t stop the Obama administration from attempting to do just that via so-called net neutrality regulations. The FCC is considering a 332 page plan to regulate the internet. They’re expected to vote on it later this month. Only after the vote will they release to the public their plans to regulate the internet. The most open and transparent administration in history is set to regulate the internet without telling the public what exactly they’re planning on doing.
Unfortunately for the Obama administration there is one Republican FCC Commissioner. Ajit Pai has been releasing information about the FCC’s net neutrality regulations and it’s clear that the administration seeks to fundamentally change how the internet works. The massive regulations proposed by the Obama administration will do little more than benefit large internet service providers at the expense of smaller ones. Large providers can easily offset regulatory costs while smaller providers will be priced out of the market. State and local governments are salivating over plans to create all sorts of internet taxes, which will only increase the cost to access the internet by consumers. Ultimately internet costs will increase substantially due to government regulations reducing competition and increased taxes.
There is no need for government to get involved in the internet, especially when the internet has worked just fine for two decades without government. Net Neutrality stems from disputes between internet services providers and bandwidth sucks like You Tube and Netflix. Comcast had threatened to limit Netflix use of their bandwidth unless Netflix paid for it. Ultimately the two multibillion dollar companies reached an agreement via private negotiations. In other words, there is absolutely no reason for government to get involved in a situation that the free market can handle with ease. Even if Comcast had cut off Netflix, because people have multiple internet service provider options the free market still would have ruled the day. Consumers of Netflix simply would have switched providers, which likely would have prompted Comcast to an agreement more favorable to Netflix. On the other hand, Netflix may have lost customers who could have switched to other services. Then they would have returned to the bargaining table and made an agreement more favorable to Comcast. In other words, the free market is where disputes like this should be settled.
We’ve had 20 years of massive technological changes on the internet, none of which came about because of government regulation. We went from dial up services on AOL to high speed broadband in a very short amount of time. Twenty years ago AOL was king, today the company barely exists. My Space was replaced with Facebook in short order. Start up companies like Amazon have transformed how people shop. In the political world the internet has transformed elections. In the news world, it’s never been easier to access news from hundreds of sites around the world. All of this was done without government regulation or involvement of any kind. In fact, when government has gotten involved in the internet it’s been a disaster. The Federal government couldn’t get the Obamacare site up and running even after three years of planning. Many government sites are notoriously difficult to navigate. Why would we give up internet freedom to replace it with incompetence?
What should disturb people the most is that the FCC is attempting to regulate the internet in secrecy. Nearly every American has internet access, using it for work, general communication, research and entertainment. Quite frankly, no one has a problem with how the internet works today. Yet the Obama administration wants to step in and create at a minimum 322 pages of regulation all in secrecy. We don’t get to find out the details until they’ve already voted on it. Mind you, the FCC has no mandate from Congress to regulate the internet. Commissioner Pai is obviously planning on sounding the alarm on the FCC’s regulations. However that doesn’t change the fact that the Obama administration wants to take over the internet without anyone knowing what they’re going to do. After the Obamacare debacle, wherein Nancy Pelosi declared Congress had to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it, do the American people really want to trust the Obama FCC to regulate the internet in the same manner?
This is truly outrageous!
“The FCC is considering a 332 page plan to regulate the internet. They’re expected to vote on it later this month.”
Whew. For a minute there I thought CONGRESS was going to vote on it. Boy, am I relieved. /heavy sarcasm
We must inform our congressmen and Senators that the MUST KILL THIS EFFORT.
The President DOES NOT HAVE THIS AUTHORITY!
The Republicans need to take a two prong approach to the FCC’s brazen overreach of authority. First, they need to refuse to fund all regulations associated with net neutrality. Second, they need to sue the FCC. Twice already the courts have ruled the FCC doesn’t have the authority to regulate the internet, presumably the court will rule the same in the future. Of course it might not get to that point. By the time the Supreme Court looks at these regulations we’ll have a new President who hopefully opposes net neutrality.
Money is fungible.
The entire FCC must be defunded to stop this.
and the EPA while we’re at it.
The reporting on this issue seems really deficient. The federal Administrative Procedure Act (APA) allows independent agencies like to FCC to make regulations only after a defined period of public comments. Those comments become part of the open, public record of any rule-making process.
As a part of the rule-making process, the POTUS is allowed to submit comments to the FCC, just as is any other party — individual, corporate, governmental or whatever. But the POTUS can’t “order” the FCC to do something. And I don’t see how his suggestions could be “secret.”
Net neutrality may be as bad as some people say, or it may turn out basically to be “neutral.” I haven’t studied the issue, so I can’t take an informed position one way or the other. But I sure wish the news stories would do a better job of explaining the procedural issues involved.
It’s the Republican Commissioner on the FCC that has said that the Commission will vote on these rules later this month before the rules are released publicly. http://www.fcc.gov/document/comm-pais-stmt-president-obamas-plan-regulate-internet
John Boehner and Mitch McConnell can put a stop to this but I suspect they own stock in cable companies that will benefit them just as Boehner owns stocks in healthcare companies since Dec 2008
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