Catch future episodes of The Needle for a special discussion of Tech at Night and my other project, UnlikelyVoter.com. Be warned, though, The Needle is a bit rowdier than RedState.
I’ve said it in this space before, and I’ll keep saying because the Lame Duck session is coming: Republicans need to get out in front on Net Neutrality and we need to do it quickly. We cannot hinder the Internet by forcing ISPs to go to court over Title II reclassification.
Imagine if every video you play online, every download you make, every OS upgrade you run, every podcast you play, all got slower, skipped more, and just became a greater drain on your time. That’s just the beginning of we face if Title II reclassification happens, and investor dollars are scared away from building private Internet infrastructure in America.
But that’s the situation. Henry Waxman is using Republican inaction to argue for radical FCC action. It shouldn’t be the case as Seton Motley points out, but that’s what he’s saying. So let’s judo this and fight back by using his own bill against him.
America really is uniting behind radical Net Neutrality proposals pushed by the neo-Marxists at Free Press and their (shrinking) band of allies. Even some universal access advocates are realizing that Internet access at good speeds and affordable prices for all Americans is a pipe dream if harsh FCC regulation lands on the Internet. Do you want to make the “digital divide” larger? Pass the “third way” of Title II reclassification that the FCC and Free Press want.
Do you want to kill jobs? Pass Title II reclassification Net Neutrality. That’s the case the Phoenix Center makes. Starting with a “10% negative shock to capital expenditures” (the expenditures needed to keep our downloads and videos humming along, even as services like Youtube push higher and higher resolutions), we see a ripple effect of jobs lost for every million in investment lost. High paying jobs, too: these jobs are 45% higher paying “than the typical US private-sector job.” Say hello to FCC Net Neutrality and say hello to McJobs.
And why are we even facing all of this? Because of the oh-so-scary prospect of paying for better service. We’ve had this argument before:
Yes, the same kinds of scare tactics driving Net Neutrality used to drive the push against cable television. Imagine if regulation had killed cable before it started. Who wants to go back to having 5-10 channels? Not me, and I don’t even watch much live television.
But everyone reading this is online, which is why everyone reading this will benefit if the House GOP will pick up the ball that Henry Waxman dropped, and push for a moderate, reasonable Net Neutrality bill that will stop the FCC’s radical plans. Just stop them. That’s what America needs for our economy, for our freedom, and just for the basic enjoyment of our daily lives in talking to family on Facebook, friends on Twitter, and comrades in political arms on RedState and other sites.