- If the House and White House were to go along, content regulation will ensue**
How “Net Neutrality” is portrayed — give it a nice bunny name and image
These IJR articles do not contain adequate references from a conservative perspective as regards what “Net Neutrality” portends — for that use our search window to apprise yourself of the issue through links in our commentaries. However they are adequate as foils for comments regarding the PR confusion/corruption the term Net Neutrality invokes.
Senate Votes to Reinstate Net Neutrality Rules
The Senate voted on Wednesday to reinstate the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality rules after they were killed last year to repeal the Obama-era protections.
Democrats used the Congressional Review Act (CRA) — a law that allows Congress to repeal agency regulates by simple majority vote — to force a vote on a measure bringing back the repealed rules.
Forty-nine Democrats and three Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and John Kennedy (La.), voted in support of the measure. The bill passed 52-47.
The FCC first voted in December to repeal net neutrality rules, which prevent internet providers from giving special treatment to some online content over others.
Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.) blasted FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for drafting the repeal when it was first proposed, saying he “really gets the job done for the titans of Big Cable.”
Pai hit back, saying that the U.S. was “not living in some digital dystopia.”
“The main problem consumers have with the internet is not and has never been that their internet provider is blocking access to content. It’s been that they don’t have access at all,” he continued.
Other lawmakers also expressed concern over the repeal, as did a large portion of the American people.
It is considered unlikely that the bill to reinstate net neutrality will pass the House, where it would need the support of a minimum of 22 Republicans, even if every Democrat voted in support.
President Donald Trump would also have to sign off on bringing back the rules.
Just ahead of the vote on Monday, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said the vote would “get every member of the Senate on the record as either supporting or opposing net neutrality.”
“There is nowhere to hide, and there are no excuses. You are either for a free and open internet or you are not,” he said.
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This particular IJR is dumbfounding as it parrots confused tripe about the matter. A statistic about what people think they know about a totally propagandized confusing name ought not be referenced without one big disclaimer.
Following Wednesday’s successful Senate vote to reinstate net neutrality rules, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) downplayed the potential that the issue could be a black eye for Republicans heading into the midterm elections.
Cruz, who voted down the Congressional Review Act (CRA) forced to the floor by Democrats, told IJR that he’s not concerned over Democrats using his vote against him or other Republicans up for reelection in the fall.
“I don’t see any voters, any new voters, who will come to the polls on this issue,” Cruz said. “The Chicken Little hysteria is driven by cynical democratic politicians trying to scare people. But I don’t see any new voters coming to the polls over an issue that nobody can point to anything that has affected someone that has made them worse off.”
The Texas senator, who is gearing up to take on Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) in an already contentious midterm election, argued that there has been no harm done since the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) revoked the Obama-era rules back in December 2017.
“You’ll recall the wailing of the left-wing activists was that when the FCC repealed the Obama administration’s power grab that the internet would end,” Cruz told IJR.
“Has that happened? Has anything happened? Has anyone noticed anything different whatsoever? The answer is no,” he added.
While Cruz may be correct that internet service providers haven’t made any major sweeping changes lately, the new rules put in place FCC chairman Ajit Pai aren’t set to take effect until June 11.
However, Cruz maintained that net neutrality is predominantly only a big issue for “hardcore activists who hate the president,” and he credited much of its widespread popularity to having a “clever name that sounds positive and beneficial.”
“Net Neutrality is like naming something fuzzy bunny rabbit. My guess is 90 percent of Americans support fuzzy bunny rabbit,” Cruz said.
“Try polling, instead, should the federal government have the authority to regulate the internet and regulate terms of service and pricing. That doesn’t poll nearly as well,” he added.
Net neutrality supporters in the Senate, though, say this is a fight they’ll willingly take to the ballot box. “I would not want to campaign in any part of this country saying that I oppose net neutrality,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told IJR.
Wednesday’s vote also saw some of Cruz’s Republican colleagues side with the over 80 percent of Americans who want to see the Obama-era protections preserved, including Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and John Kennedy (La.).
Kennedy told IJR that his “yes” vote came down to whether or not people could trust the cable companies to keep a free and open internet. “I trust everybody but I still believe in verification,” Kennedy said.
“I just think there should be a free and open internet,” he added.
However, Kennedy was also skeptical of the prospects that net neutrality could cost Republicans in the fall elections.
“Every day somebody up here says that there’s going to be a new issue that’s going to be dispositive of how things will turn out in the midterms,” the Louisiana senator said.
“Let me tell you a secret: When it comes to politics, the experts are almost always wrong,” he added.
*Think big-government will not use its “influence” to control content? Consider:
New York Pressured Banks to Sever Ties With NRA — Now the Organization Is Firing Back
With additional power to regulate and assign and control costs comes the power to use that to “politically correct” government approved ends. A mild suggestion perhaps to the regulated that whatever expansively constitutes “hate speech” is not sufficiently regulated in the “leveled” playing field.
** By the way, what is Mitch’s plan to rid the party of these outliers, Snow and Murkowski? He had a plan for the primaries in Alabama and elsewhere.
R Mall
Topic update: Friday article at Townhall
