The New Year has started, and the Republicans are soon to start acting. Conservatives were mixed in reacting to Fred Upton’s words over the weekend. Some think he’s not tough enough when it comes to rolling back big government when it comes to the FCC, the EPA, and of course Obamacare. But I’m hopeful about him because he’s struck me as coming into his Chairmanship with aggression. He’s been vocal about coming into this year with an agenda to reverse what Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi have been doing. I like that and it makes it easy for me to be patient and see what he does.
Some have also been questioning Darrell Issa’s commitment to making life miserable for people in the Obama administration, which I think is a bit silly. Issa’s been building up to this moment for months and I think he’ll do just fine with his subpoena pad.
The FCC may have already voted on Net Neutrality, but the job of picking apart the “case” for it goes on. George Ou dissects cable Internet advertised speeds and what they actually mean under real-world use. Spoiler: if you’re on cable Internet you’d better hope nobody in your neighborhood likes Netflix. So it’s just silly to be using the theoretical maximum speeds to judge whether or not there’s an effective monopoly on high-speed Internet. Cable isn’t really better, and (limited, thanks to intentional state and local monopoly status) competition still rules.
And don’t forget: in case Darrell Issa didn’t make the point well enough above, regulation threatens innovation which means regulation threatens the American way of life – the highest standard of living on the planet for decades running – as we know it today.