Posted on 09/18/2011 7:03:25 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Here is one more thing Rick Perry and some Democrats have in common: staunchly supporting AT&T's proposed merger with T-Mobile.
Yet another thing they have in common? Receiving generous contributions from AT&T in recent years.
On Thursday, North Carolina Congressman Heath Shuler joined 15 other House Democrats to write a pro-AT&T T-Mobile merger letter to President Obama. The letter rehashed AT&T's PR spin about how the deal would create jobs and bring more high-speed wireless coverage to America.
Save the Internet pointed out that these Democratic politicians have collectively received $570,000 in campaign contributions from AT&T.
"Either these members of Congress actually believe in the fantasies AT&T cooks up, or they are so worried that AT&T will turn off its spigot of campaign contributions that they'll sign anything the telecom puts in front of them," wrote the coalition.
GOP 2012 hopeful Rick Perry, meanwhile, wrote a pro-AT&T T-Mobile merger letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in his official capacity as the Texas Governor in May. Perry touted Texas' record of job creation and also parroted AT&T's PR spin of creating more jobs in the letter.
The National Journal, however, highlighted that Perry received over $500,000 from AT&T's political action committee over the last decade.
"This is just one more example of Rick Perry's pay-to-play network that represents the same old type of lobbyist-first politics," Ty Matsdorf, spokesman for American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic opposition research organization, told National Journal.
Any way you slice it, the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile is a bad deal for America.
The merger will not bring high-speed coverage to America faster; competition will.
The merger will not guarantee more jobs; common sense and historic examples tell us that mergers usually kill jobs.
Does AT&T promise more jobs in the long-term? So did Vice President Joe Biden with Solyndra.
The merger, moreover, will stifle innovation and raise prices for American consumers in the long-term, even if AT&T temporarily promises to keep T-Mobile's cheap subscription rates.
Shrinking an already concentrated industry from four major players to three - while catapulting one of them to hold a meaningful size advantage over the others - is bad for America and bad for capitalism.
Any basic economics class will tell you that.
It's called being anti-competitive; it's why the Department of Justice broke up Ma Bell in the first place in the 1980s.
"The facts don't support this merger, and AT&T knows it. So it's turning to old tricks like getting its paid-for cronies to sign a nonsensical letter of support. Repeating lies ad nauseam is standard stuff for AT&T, but we should expect more from our elected officials," wrote Save the Internet.
Once again doing the bidding of Big Union.
Just like in South Carolina. Blocking Boeing from builiding a plant there because SC is a right-to-work State.
Having said that, I believe our government should have no role in preventing this. It is a sad state of affairs when private companies must bribe politicians in order to conduct mergers. The SouthWest Bell gang is running the show, and they are definitely in Rick Perry's camp.
Plus, on the job thing, AT&T is already a successful company. They know how to create jobs.
Just as the Longshoreman in Longview, WA.
They went and busted up a port just because there was word that another Union was going to come in an set up shop.
Verizon is a Union shop.
I don't know if AT&T or T-Mobile are Goonionized. If they are, we're screwed either way.
Feel better now?
not me.....I have ATT now but get lousy signal at home...while when I had T-mobile I got great signal at home...
The Obama Administration is against the merger, therefore, I am for it! end of argument!
Parts of AT&T are definitely union.
Where's my broom?
Yeah, well, Perry would still make a better President than the one we have now, Joe Romaine. You cabbage-head.
For the record, AT&T is HQ in Dallas, and T-Mobile has their wireless engineer shop in Frisco. Additionally, T-Mobile has a call center in Frisco. All three of those offices employ Americans.
Also, T-Mobile is a German company named Deutsche Telekom with the T-Mobile US HQ in Bellevue, Wa. So, if there are T-Mobile jobs in India, you will need to take it up with the German parent company.
And what does your friend’s cell phone rate have to do with outsourcing jobs?
He who controls the infrastructure controls the present. AT&T lost it in the early 80’s. They have been working on getting it back ever since.
LOLOL! :D
There does seem to be a good deal of anti-Perry sentiment around here, which I can’t understand TBH.
I am perfectly happy to support Perry or Palin at this time, although the latter doesn’t appear to be prepping for a run as far as I can tell.
One thing I am not willing to do is base my 2012 vote, which is a pretty important vote, on women’s health issues. I think we have significantly greater things to concern ourselves with at this time.
AT&T is union. T-Mobile is not. AT&T would definitely be interested in getting more non-union employees within its ranks.
AT&T is, but T-Mobile is not, or at least they werent. They may have changed recently. I know our government sued their parent company in Germany because they are union there, but not here.
Exactly, and that is the only reason for the merger.
One thing that doesn't change is that Unions don't give a damn about competition except to crush it.
So something else is going on.
Regardless, Perry would make a far better President than Urkel.
Sure all 3 companies employee Americans. I never said they didn’t. I said they have shipped significant numbers of jobs overseas. All while increasing costs to American consumers.
So they’ve lowered their costs, increased their prices, and people like you defend them.
What does my friends cell phone have to do with it? It demonstrates the lie about costs of infrastructure and operating costs. These companies are raping the golden goose as they choke it to death.
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