While the Net Neutrality power grab got all of the attention, just as important was the FCC strike against federalism the same week, that unilaterally attempts to override all state laws against socialized Internet in this country. Imagine the audacity, to do that without a an act of Congress or anything.
Fortunately at least Tennessee is standing up to Barack Obama and his lap dog, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, on this.
If they could do this, what’s to stop, say, EPA from wiping out state laws that prevent cities from banning fracking? Or in fact, what’s to preserve federalism at all?
FCC has a habit of losing in court these days, as brazen as its power grabs are. Naturally Barack Obama’s plan to regulate the Internet is also going to court, which is a good thing because the regulation is simply out of touch with reality.
It was also a bait and switch. It was sold as a last mile regulation, but turned out to be anything but.
The House plan of reforming FCC through legislation is a sound one, but we must beware potential rent seekers hijacking the process.
Speaking of rent seekers, NFL has used regulation for years to pass the buck for its anti-fan blackout policies, but now that (in a rare good thing, a rare deregulation by this administration) the blackout regulations are gone, NFL was forced to remove the policy, because now if they kept it, it would be clear they were the anti-fan element all along. Heh.
And more on the whole winners and losers thing, this patent fight could get tricky. I’d love to see targeted reform, but it feels like any attempt at this will turn into a messy comprehensive bill.