Congress to Ban In-Flight Cell Calls?

Katherine Connell explains why the idea is gaining steam in Washington:

This is an issue with bipartisan and bicameral support because most Americans, and especially congressmen, who tend to fly more than the average citizen, find the prospect of having to overhear other people’s cell-phone conversations on flights really annoying.

As Republican senator Lamar Alexander, one of the Senate bill’s co-sponsors, put it in December, “This legislation is about avoiding something nobody wants: nearly 2 million passengers a day, hurtling through space, trapped in 17-inch-wide seats, yapping their innermost thoughts.”

Granted, that sounds unpleasant: But by what rationale does the federal government have a role here?

Leave it to the airlines. I’d happily pay a few bucks more to sit in the No-Calling section.

But that would make sense, so you can count on Congress to smack us around with its heavy hand instead.