President Obama bold proposition for new regulations for the Internet is raising eyebrows. Perhaps he hopes to make good on his State of the Union goal to expand broadband access to the four corners of the earth
Referring to the proposed Internet service rate regulations, Federal Communications Commission commissioner Ajit Pai was outspoken this week in opposition to the White House. Pai likened the rate regulations to those that were imposed in previous centuries upon the railroad and telephone monopolies.
“I’ve heard from a lot of people who are amazed at how the entire process that this issue has progressed on, and the substance of it mimics Obamacare that Washington bureaucracy would keep this plan in the dark, wouldn’t release it until after it was voted on, and you have the FCC, or any federal agency essentially micromanaging the private sector.”
The problem is that there exists no such monopoly among Internet service providers (ISPs). What is so appalling to Pai, is the FCC is “adopting a solution that won’t work to a problem that doesn’t exist using legal authority we don’t have.”
The new regulations will promise “government control of virtually every aspect of the Internet” and add at least $11 billion in new taxes on Internet access. The proposal amounts to an Obamacare for the Internet in which the FCC would be forced to ‘micro-manage’ the Internet service plans consumers are allowed to choose from.
During an interview on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” Pai expressed concern Obama has also taken an “alarmingly unprecedented direct” role in forming the FCC’s plan, which is publicly unavailable:
“Unfortunately it looks like the cake has been baked. President Obama gave his direction to the FCC in back in early November and lo and behold, the FCC majority has put together President Obama’s plan for Internet regulation. And it looks to be posed pass it on a 3-to-2 vote. … When you have a politician shortly after the midterm election deciding to direct the agency to do x, y, z and telling us he wants us to use a particular legal theory to do it you’re in uncharted territory, at least in my experience. I think compromising the independence of the agency is bad enough, but especially when it involves government control of the Internet. That is just a dangerous road for us to travel on.”
The FCC will vote on the Net Nuetrality rules on February 26th.
