Why do Republicans hate Net Neutrality? – UPDATED
Senate Republicans have moved to prevent the FCC’s proposed rules on net neutrality with an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that would tie up funding at the agency for new regulatory mandates. Observers said, however, that the move was unlikely to be approved in the Democrat-majority Congress.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), ranking member of Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said in a release:
“We must tread lightly when it comes to new regulations. Where there have been a handful of questionable actions in the past on the part of a few companies, the Commission and the marketplace have responded swiftly,” Hutchison said in the release.
“The case has simply not been made for what amounts to a significant regulatory intervention into a vibrant marketplace. These new regulatory mandates and restrictions could stifle investment incentives,” she said.
This is one of those old-fashioned Republican deceits. Not the Bush-Cheney-Perry neocon flavor. A little less sophistry.
Perish the thought someone might prefer freedom of choice, freedom of access and communication – over investment incentives!
UPDATE: In today’s modern up-to-date Senate, the 6 senators offering the amendment to an appropriations bill that will prohibit the FCC from developing and implementing new regulations:
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas ), Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).
Here’s one of my simple rules for life:
If Republicans and trans-national corporations are for something, it can’t be good for me, so I’m automatically against it.
If, on the other hand, Republicans and trans-national corporations are against something, it’s got to be good for me, so I’m automatically for it.
This rule saves me a lot of unnecessary thinking and for decades and decades it hasn’t even come close to failing me – not even once.
Cinaedh
September 22, 2009 at 6:26 am
ha ha ha, a natural response for those with a well developed sense of self preservation.
Mr. Fusion
September 22, 2009 at 6:33 am
LOL
Jägermeister
September 22, 2009 at 6:56 am
I totally agree with both Mr. Fusion’s and Cinaedh’s comments. Good advice and sound thinking if I do say so myself. And since I really know very little about the net neutrality topic, I really appreciate their insights.
E Trams
September 22, 2009 at 6:41 am
Net Neutrality is basically your Internet Service Provider censoring your internet traffic. The most common ways are by slowing down your speed and even stopping access to certain sites.
Last year I missed a couple of important emails because the backbone deleted them. Not the ISP, the backbone banned the entire provider. They decided that the ISP and everyone signed up was spamming. So, to save traffic they banned the entire domain.
It wouldn’t have mattered as much but the emails concerned my fathers impending death. They contained information my sister sent to several family members in four countries.
Net neutrality would bar the backbone from banishing an entire domain because it also contains legitimate sites. It would allow the stopping of individual addresses though that do send spam.
Another, probably more common is slowing down or bottlenecking
Mr. Fusion
September 23, 2009 at 7:21 am
oops, accidentally hit “send”,
Continued,
Another, probably more common is slowing down or bottle necking the traffic you receive. This is most common with those who use torrents and those who watch a lot of Youtube and videos. They are all bandwidth intensive.
There is never any notice or appeal when an ISP censors your traffic.
Mr. Fusion
September 23, 2009 at 7:24 am
It’s funny how my ISP normally caps the traffic, but when net neutrality is being actively discussed by the politicians and/or media, they remove the cap for a little while.
Jägermeister
September 22, 2009 at 6:58 am
Well it’s funny until you consider the implications.
Mr. Fusion
September 22, 2009 at 7:43 am
I know… they’re just trying to maintain status quo.
Jägermeister
September 22, 2009 at 8:00 am
That at&t ad is from a republican or conservative website!
jemmison
September 25, 2009 at 4:27 am