More government “help” is on the way.
Republicans in Congress are doing a 180 on net neutrality as the Federal Communications Commission prepares to issue new rules within weeks.
For years, GOP lawmakers have adamantly opposed any rules requiring Internet service providers to treat all Web traffic equally, calling them unnecessary and an example of Washington overreach.
But now that the FCC is moving toward issuing a tough net neutrality order that would subject broadband to utility-style regulation — an approach endorsed by President Barack Obama — top Republicans in both chambers are making plans to legislate their own rules to ensure the agency doesn’t go too far.
There are enough bad ideas here to write five posts about but I’ll limit it to a couple of broader ideas.
First, net neutrality is a bad idea. That is, of course, unless you are a big fan of government regulation.
I am not.
Secondly, this approach by the Republicans is, quite frankly, idiotic.
If a regulatory agency is going to run amok and circumvent the legislative process, giving said agency a modified legislated version of its overreach isn’t the best way to deal with it. Legislating the opposite, or trying to trim back the power of the agency would be more along the lines of what the country definitely needs at this time.
Most disturbing about this is seeing the new majority Republicans caving on an issue they were adamantly opposed to when they were in the minority. They can spin it however they want, but their reasons for originally being against it were sound and nothing has changed to warrant an about-face.
As I have been saying since November: the reason I am not excited about the new Republican majority is that I remember the last one.
The White House, by the way, believes that the FCC has all of the power it needs to make their version happen anyway.
That is the real problem.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member