To: The new Republican majority in Congress
From: Mitch Berg, First and Fourth Amendment Buff
Re: In re the FCC
Dear new majority,
Please see to abolishing the Federal Communications Commission.
Julius “Seizure” Genachowski, Obama’s current puppet as chairman of the FCC’s board, is involved in an epic power grab that indulges the classic liberal conceit that “if we can make the law say it’s right, then it must be right”. Scott Johnson shreds Genachowski’s legal approach. Kevin O’Brien gets the rest of it in this Cleveland Plain Dealer op-ed, noting that Genachowski’s latest power grab has something for everyone to hate:
[MN Senator Al] Franken wrongly believes the FCC can make the rules. He just finds what is proposed too generous to big corporations — a legitimate concern. When the feds make rules, they tend to preserve the primacy of whoever the industry leaders are at the time. As Franken wisely notes (now, there’s a phrase you may never see in this space again), if the big boys like it, be suspicious.
[SC Senator Jim] DeMint, while properly dismissing the FCC’s authority to require anything at all of Internet providers, is more worried about a government takeover of the Internet. He’s right, too.
The idea that this is all about consumer protection and a level playing field is plainly ludicrous. It’s just another a power grab, nobly camouflaged in the familiar progressive guise of Making Life Fair.
Leftyblogs’ cases for Obama’s power grab usually involve plaintive pleas of “why shouldn’t everyone have equal access to the Internet?”. For the same reason that I don’t have equal access to your refrigerator or your retirement account; it’s not theirs. The Internet’s costly grows almost exclusively due to private investment; it’s not been a government or academic preserve since DARPA let the genie out of the bottle. The Internet is not like the broadcast spectrum, as dubious as the FCC’s case is for regulating even that.
The end result would be an Internet tied up in rules and regulations, with government setting rates and stifling competition. It can’t go any other way, because it never goes any other way.
In a speech announcing that the FCC would ignore the courts and dare the Congress to stop it, Genachowski unwittingly explained just how unnecessary it is for his agency to “protect” us:
“Internet companies have started as small startups, some of them famously in dorm rooms and garages with little more than a computer and access to the open Internet. Many have become large businesses, providing high-paying, high-tech jobs in communities across our country. It’s the American dream at work.”
The rest of the speech was unadulterated bunkum, but he was right about that.
It’s time to shut down the FCC. Please see to this ASAP.
Use the Air Force if necessary.
That is all,
MBerg
The other day I heard a commentator note that the FCC was started to make sure dear departed Ma Bell and Western Union (on life support) were properly regulated. If anything, the FCC and other regulators exist to protect big business by making the cost to enter the market artificially high. Our country has a habit of protecting big business at the expense of the little guy, witness St. Paulite James Hill or the airlines (Southwest Airlines still can’t fly into DFW). Based on the Obamians heavy handed dealings with their critics, don’t be surprised if they come down on the side that will allow them access to screw over their political opponents.