Rep. Marsha Blackburn Explains How GOP Will Block FCC Takeover of the Internet (Video)
Posted by Jim Hoft on Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 6:55 AM
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was on Hannity with Mark Steyn last night to discuss the FCC takeover of the internet during the lame duck session.
Rep. Blackburn described how the GOP would block this contoversial power grab including withholding funds for such operations:
Rep. Marsha Blackburn also wrote about this “Christmas Nightmare” at her website:
This may sound like a Halloween tale, but the FCC’s Christmas Week takeover of the Internet is the best example of President Reagan’s maxim that the nearest thing to eternal life on Earth is a federal program.
Just four days before Christmas, the FCC will make its vampric leap from its traditional jurisdiction- the terrestrial radio and land line telephones that have fallen into disuse; onto the gifts piled neatly under our trees. The iPads and iPhones, Androids, Wiis, Webbooks, and WiFi will all feel the federal bite in a way they never have before.
Today the FCC, in spite of Congressional opposition and public outrage, is expected to adopt “net neutrality” regulations over the Internet. They will impose thousands of pages of rules on the most prosperous, creative, and exciting sector of the American economy. They’ll do it- and then Congress will have to undo it.
The FCC’s blind impulse to regulate before the new Congress can restrain them ignores a host of consequences that will prove ill for America’s Creative Economy. First, in detaching the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from the Internet architecture they have built, the FCC is effectively nationalizing the web. The FCC does this in the name of “fairness”, “non-discrimination”, and “leveling the playing field”. The consequence will be a restriction of bandwidth for users and a deterioration of the online architecture that ISPs no longer have an interest in expanding or maintaining. The underserved communities in this country who don’t yet have access to broadband are now much less likely to get it.
Second, the FCC’s hysterical reaction to the hypothetical problem of anti-competitive online behavior is also redundant. By asserting jurisdiction over the Internet as a communications platform, the FCC is shortsightedly ignoring the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who already has sufficient rules in place to contain the bad behavior in the virtual marketplace the FCC seems so worried about. This sets up a real jurisdictional fight and points out what happens when the bureaucracy decides to create work for themselves, rather than wait for Congress to dictate to them.
Finally, when the FCC moves to regulate the Internet, they focus on those issues they understand: bandwidth, spectrum, and to a lesser extent content. They ignore emerging issues of fair trade, property rights, privacy, and copyright. In my view a more comprehensive approach to the new Creative Economy and how it can be protected is the most appropriate. Such a comprehensive approach can only begin on Capitol Hill.
The real issue here is not that the Federal Government lacks the authority to sensibly regulate the Internet. Nor, even, that the Internet is in desperate need of regulation- it isn’t. The issue is that the FCC is running out of useful things to occupy their time. There is a real bi-partisan consensus that Congress should act first to regulate the Internet (or not regulate as the case may be). Industry and creative content providers who were coerced into this deal by an over zealous FCC Chairman should take heart. Like the breaking of dawn, the new Congress will prove a swift antidote to the federal bloodsucker you found at your throat this Christmas.
Man, she’s good!
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Anthony commented:
I disagree with her statement that the Federal Gov’t has the authority to SENSIBLY regulate the internet. They can’t even tie their own shoes sensibly.
As for the FCC, I’m wondering if the real reason for all of this is that they know the future of communications is the Internet, and that traditional media are moving toward extinction. Because when that happens, the FCC will be out of a job.
Rose commented:
I hope and pray that the GOP honors their obligations in this new year to slash the FCC, the NEA, the EPA, the UN, Obamacare, the tax hikes that did “slip through” in broad daylight and in the dead of night – the Start Treaty, the Stalinist Agenda for homosexuality, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc… I hope and pray they do honor the Constitution and We The People, their own obligations to do what is Right and Just in The People’s Business…. I pray they use Wisdom and employ Clever Solutions to do Right and to do Justice – with all my heart, I pray they do, In Jesus’ Name – His Holy Name.
John Adams: The nature of the encroachment upon American constitution is such, as to grow every day more and more encroaching. Like a cancer; it eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, foppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society.
Samuel Adams: The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
RedBeard commented:
Yet another strong woman doing right, and putting to shame a lot of congressional MINOs (Men In Name Only).
bg commented:
++
Thank You Marsha Blackburn & Mark Steyn..
Malkin: Internet Access is not a “Civil Right”
[By a vote of 3-2, the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday adopted a controversial scheme to ensure "net neutrality" by turning unaccountable Democratic appointees into meddling online traffic cops. The panel will devise convoluted rules governing Internet service providers, bandwidth use, content, prices and even disclosure details on Internet speeds. The "neutrality" is brazenly undermined by preferential treatment toward wireless broadband networks. Moreover, the FCC's scheme is widely opposed by Congress -- and has already been rejected once in the courts. Demonized industry critics have warned that the regulations will stifle innovation and result in less access, not more.
Sound familiar? The parallels with health care are striking. The architects of Obamacare promised to provide Americans more access to health insurance -- and cast their agenda as a fundamental universal entitlement.]
does wash, rinse, repeat?? /repetitive sarc/
and the NWO marches on.. *sigh*
==
Sally commented:
It is illegal. Three people imposed it, one of whom is the daughter of a ranking US House member?
The nepotism, alone, negates it, not to mention the courts and Congress ruled against it..
JimmyT commented:
You overlooked the fact that a federal district court ALSO told the FCC they didn’t not have the authority to regulate the internet. The GOP had BETTER stop these regulatory agencies. Congress needs to get control of these bureaucracies they have established who seem to regulate at will. I, for one, am tired of hearing elected officials say they have no control over these agencies. As Blackburn has proven, they can control everything that happens in these agencies with their control of the purse strings. Now, it’s just a matter of having the guts to do it!
Oldsailor commented:
Why do I have a feeling that control of the internet has more to do with collecting taxes on on-line commerce than helping or protecting anyone.
Joanne commented:
This is just the first step in controlling what the people can read or see on the internet. All communist countries control the media, and the internet is the most watched and read form of media in the world. In fact, it won’t be long before the internet is controlled by the New World Order – God speaks of this one world order – it will happen. You will have to have the Mark of the Beast to buy or sell – this mark is the kiss of death.
wow commented:
This should be our new rallying cry. Thank you …
DAVID HARSANYI: Save The Internet: Abolish the FCC!
Chisum commented:
Surprise!
The Net Neutrality Coup
The campaign to regulate the Internet was funded by a who’s who of left-liberal foundations.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703886904576031512110086694.html
averagemelon commented:
Controlling the internet is about controlling information…a pillar of Communism. Since television and newspapers have been quasi-controlled and are facing the ash heap of useless technology, the Democrats had to act very fast. Just who IS IT that writes the rules that amount in the THOUSANDS before the action is even taken?
The Republicans coming into power are our last LEGAL hope of keeping our Republic. They must understand the extreme duty to this nation they face.
Mad Hatter commented:
Marsha and Michele Bachmann are the future of the party, while the likes of Rove, and Graham with their line of thinking are out of step, out of touch, and out of their minds.
billsv commented:
Eliminate the FCC. It has outlived it’s original purpose. A good reason to have sunset provisions on all regulations and agencies.
m commented:
It is interesting. Hope GOP will block FCC. The FCC should have shut down and go out of business. It is a waste of our taxpayer’s money. We don’t want the government take control of the internet just like the health care. It is unconstitutional. Obama’s job performance rating is poor and the rating is at 36%. It is because of the Congress Lame Duck session. The Congress job approval isn’t good. If he doesn’t get thing turn around in two years, Obama will lose the election just like former Pres. Carter. We will have a Republican President in the White House in 2012. It might be Sarah Palin; not Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich.
The last two Presidents we had the best job performance was the late former Pres. Ronald Reagan and former Pres. George W. Bush.
bigL commented:
I think the plan is to turn it over to the EU or some NGOs over in Switzerland. I recall about 6yrs ago thre was a move by the USA govt andtheEU to reemove the naming protocol to europeon entities. They said it was unfair that a private business had so much clout.
It was rejected.
But i would not besurprised that before any of the new Congressers would or rmight act it will be transferred to the EU. It will happen over-night, in the night.And it will be too late.
Robert commented:
Frome her comments:
“In my view a more comprehensive approach to the new Creative Economy and how it can be protected is the most appropriate. Such a comprehensive approach can only begin on Capitol Hill.”
Just remember, they all have to be watched. All of them.
[bold by me] (heh)
BS61 commented:
M commented It might be Sarah Palin; not Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Newt Gingrich.
The last two Presidents we had the best job performance was the late former Pres. Ronald Reagan and former Pres. George W. Bush.
I personally hope that it is none of these!!
Badger commented:
I have yet to see just one argument in favor of this net neutrality crap, that is not entirely retarded or outright insane. There are no sane arguments for net neutrality.
Rob Crawford commented:
“Man, she’s good!”
So you missed the paragraph where she said Congress should move to regulate the Internet?
John Gargano commented:
Rep. Marsha Blackburn has identified herself as another rising star in the Republican party. I am immensely grateful that she is in the House and doing the work of the people – that too few others are doing.
I look forward to seeing her in a national leadership position in the Republican party in the future.
Thank you Rep MB!
A_Nonny_Mouse commented:
” The issue is that the FCC is running out of useful things to occupy their time. ”
==========================
I’d say that the issue is that the Progressives in our government see the groundswell of repudiation from a well-informed and newly-energized citizenry coming their way.
They HAVE to get as much anti-American, anti-business, anti-individual-responsibility regulation as possible (disguised, of course, as urgent, necessary, pro-environment/ pro-fairness/ we’re-all-citizens-of-this-one-fragile-planet/ measures which MUST! be enacted RIGHT! NOW!) dumped on us before their plans can be completely undone.
So, suddenly — you see the START treaty passed to prevent missile defense, you see the FCC authorizing the takeover of the internet, you see the EPA working overtime to hamstring energy production, you see Homeland Security taking up the cause of Environmental Justice (what the heck is that?)… and dammit, you see plenty of Progressive Republicans working right alongside their Progressive Democrat brethren in getting all this cr@p legislation and regulation shoveled through every bureaucratic system possible, by any means necessary.
As Robert said in comment #16 above: “Just remember, they all have to be watched. All of them.”
Absolutely correct. And it’s not just “them” meaning the Democrats and Republicans in the Legislative Branch. It’s also the President; and his Cabinet; and his Executive Orders; and all his non-vetted czars and their unenumerated powers. It’s also the Supreme Court (actually it’s EVERY court where federal judges feel empowered to “legislate from the bench”). It’s not just the alphabet-soup regulatory agencies (whose authority to interfere in our lives and businesses has grown exponentially because they were set up without the checks-and-balances the Founders established for government). It’s also the Federal Reserve Bank and its power to devalue our currency by printing fiat money. And of course, we can’t forget that it’s also the media, which during the 2008 presidential campaign finally dropped all pretense of being objective and unbiased, actively promoting Liberal/Progressive Obama and smearing his opponents.
That’s a long, LONG, _L-O-N-G_ list of entities, bureaucracies, estabishments, rulemakers and officeholders to keep track of. And yet we have to do it, we simply HAVE to, because they all, every-single-one-of-them, are arrayed against the interests of We-The-People: against our individuality, against our rights and freedoms, and against the responsibility we willingly undertake for the choices we make.