Network Neutrality is idiotic crony policy that DC’s Big Tech cronies have spent a decade-plus trying to jam down our throats.
The DC cronies first briefly tried the proper way to impose Net Neutrality. Which is to pass law through Congress. That got them absolutely nowhere.
So the DC cronies reverted to their innate authoritarianism. And started having unelected Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioners illegally jam it down our throats. Illegally? Because the FCC commissioners can not do it unless and until Congress passes law authorizing them to do it.
Except (almost always) the FCC only has a Democrat-commissioner majority – when there is a Democrat president. And what a Democrat FCC does? A Republican FCC can un-do.
A reversal lesson President Donald Trump will again learn about his many second-term executive orders. This style of unilateral policy-making is built upon shifting sands. Even if you can get this or that judge to allow it? The next opposing-party administration can reverse most or all of it. And it undoubtedly will.
US President Biden Day 1: All the Trump Policies He Reversed
Barack Obama’s FCC spent most of its two-term tenure nigh-myopically fixated upon Net Neutrality’s imposition. Only to be immediately reversed by the first Trump Administration. Absentee landlord Joe Biden’s FCC then picked up where Obama had left off. Only to be succeeded by the second Trump administration.
Why the Democrat obsession with Net Neutrality? Cronyism. For Big Tech.
One of the hugest bits of Net Neutrality cronyism? It outlaws Big Tech being charged for the MASSIVE bandwidth it uses.
You and I pay MUCH more money to check our emails and social media pages. Because bandwidth costs money – and someone has to pay for it. You and I pay more. To further artificially augment Big Tech’s MEGA profits.
The biggest Big Tech beneficiary of Net Neutrality and its cronyism? Internet movie streaming service Netflix. Because video is far-and-away the hugest chewer of bandwidth. And Netflix is far-and-away the hugest streamer of video.
Netflix has consistently consumed 35% of all US bandwidth. So having DC cronies outlaw their being charged for any of that usage? Is exceedingly helpful to them.
And for the DC cronies? Their Big Tech cronyism pays-off very, very well.
As mentioned: Former DC Big Tech stooge Barack Obama spent his eight years incessantly shoving Net Neutrality down our throats. Netflix subsequently rewarded him for his efforts – with a $50 million movie production deal. Movies being something the unproductive Obama had never before produced. But that’s the pay-off. For the cronyism.
So: We pay way more for our Internet. So Netflix doesn’t have to pay at all. And Netflix can pay-off Obama $50 million. Out of their cronyism-augmented profits. Ain’t that great?
We are now experiencing Trump’s anti-Net Neutrality second term. And even before Trump walked back into the White House? On January 2nd? The Sixth Circuit Court Of Appeals delivered US a bit of sanity….
Net Neutrality Dealt a Final Defeat in a Blow to Democrats:
“A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday the Federal Communications Commission did not have legal authority to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules.
“The decision is a blow to the outgoing Biden administration that had made restoring the open internet rules a priority. President Joe Biden signed a 2021 executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate the rules.
“A three-judge panel of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC lacked authority to reinstate the rules initially implemented in 2015 by the agency under Democratic former President Barack Obama, but then repealed by the commission in 2017 under Republican former President Donald Trump.”
The FCC doesn’t have the authority. Because Congress never gave it to them. As the DC cronies tacitly admitted. When they long ago ever-so-briefly tried to get Congress to give authority to the FCC.
Congress passing law? Would finally end the ping-pong back-and-forth idiocy to which we’ve so long been subjected.
Something the current Trump Administration – and the allegedly Republican-majority Congress – should take to heart. And to the floor.
Every time Trump signs an executive order? A bill with that exact language should be filed in the House and the Senate.
Because: The just-cited Reuters piece chose to use the adjective “final” in its headline – in describing the Democrats’ Net Neutrality defeat.
If only that were true….
First published at LessGovernment.org.
