| |
|
May 2010
Even casual observers of the FCC should have noticed by now that the policy actions it has taken in the last year, and the comments made by some of the commissioners, make clear that at least a couple extreme so-called “consumer groups” that routinely visit with FCC staff are leading commissioners in radical policy directions.
Obviously we are supporters of the First Amendment and are cheered when the public speaks up, telling government what they think. It’s all part of our right to petition the government, including regulatory agencies. However, we also think that government agencies need to especially consider data and substantive facts and information, rather than just policy pressure.
We’re concerned that these days the FCC seems to be in the thrall of one or two left-leaning groups and is following ideology rather than working from easily observable business and market reality. Read More...
|
|
|
I blogged the other day about bipartisan Congressional opposition to the FCC's attempt to expand their regulation of the Internet in the form of letters from 74 House Democrats and 37 Senate Republicans.
Well, today, the radical leftwing group Free Press that is agitating for more government regulation of the Internet put up a temper tantrum on their website. It musthave really knocked them for a loop to find out that not every Democrat on the Hill is smoking what Free Press is dealing. Read More...
|
|
|
So you’re 62 years old and have been downsized, laid off or forced into early retirement because of the struggling economy. And you think to yourself, “I’ll take early retirement under Social Security, which will provide a small but reliable (let’s hope!) income, and get a job that will pay maybe $20,000 or $25,000 a year to make ends meet.”
In a word: fugetaboutit!
That’s because Social Security will withhold one dollar for every two you make above $14,160 this year. It’s called the Social Security earnings limit, and it exists to discourage older Americans from taking early retirement under Social Security.
The original earnings limit was created with the passage of Social Security in 1935 to fulfill social policy, not economic policy. Read More...
|
|
|
Those who think that the FCC's aggressive attempt to begin regulating the Internet is a partisan issue should take careful note of a letter released today in which 73 elected Democratic Members of Congress oppose the FCC's actions.
As the letter notes,
We are writing to reinforce the strong bipartisan consensus among policymakers, industry participants, and analysts that the success of the broadband marketplace stems from policies that encourage competition, private investment, and legal certainty. The regulatory framework first adopted in 1998 by the Clinton administration's FCC has resulted in broadband industry infrastructure investment of approximately $60 billion per year.[italics mine]
Read More...
|
|
|
Recently the FCC decided it should examine the current “retransmission consent rules” to determine whether they are working for all parties, including broadcasters, content creators, service providers and customers.
Retransmission rules were adopted in 1992. They allowed US television stations to force video service providers, such as cable or satellite, to carry “local content” provided by the local television station (called “must carry”), or to negotiate with the video service provider for carriage of its broadcast programming.
But today, the rules need an update. Continuing the threat of “must carry” distorts price mechanisms and thus distorts negotiations—a short-sighted government construct rather than a true marketplace negotiation.
Read More...
|
|
|
The House Republican leadership has just announced You Cut (http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/) where, along with a greeting by House Republican Whip Eric Cantor explaining the need to get federal spending under control, the public can “vote” on several potential cuts in the federal budget. Votes can be rendered either on the website or from a cell phone.
This week’s choices include, among other options:
- $260 million for the presidential election fund. After singing the praises of government-financed elections, President Obama refused to take federal money because it would limit what he could raise. Eliminating this program would mean all presidential elections would be funded by private contributions.
- $600 million for taxpayer subsidized union activities. Read More...
|
|
|
Lost in all the discussion about how irresponsible it was for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to express concerns and opinions about Arizona's recently passed immigration law without having read it is something that's even more astonishing (and arrogant) to me.
He also showed up at a Congressional hearing without adequately prepping for the hearing.
Holder had to know he'd be asked about the Arizona law, and especially about the fact that he hadn't yet read the law when he made his comments over the weekend. But, knowing this, he still hadn't bothered to read the law in preparation for Thursday's hearing?
This is just astonishing to me, insulting to Congress, and indicative, I think, of the arrogance of this administration. Read More...
|
|
|
A few years ago there was a popular book entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Watching the FCC’s reaction to losing the Comcast case, we’re beginning to wonder if maybe some higher-ups at the FCC weren’t paying attention in Kindergarten.
Don’t Throw a Tantrum
Perhaps you remember the days when being told “no” was really hard to handle. Sooner or later, for the most part, people learn that being told “no” is simply part of life and that “no” is far from the worst thing that can happen, and is actually often the catalyst to other opportunity.
Some, however, do not learn to handle “no” well. Read More...
|
|
|
When an 18-year incumbent Senator is defeated in his party nominating process, apart from scandal, that's a shock to the system, and it's no wonder every pundit has an opinion on the matter.
Trouble is, they're almost all wrong.
Typical of the chatter is Juan Williams, who reacted:
"A guy like Bob Bennett, who is a right-wing conservative, is being driven out because he's not sufficiently conservative?"
Juan Williams misses the point, and in the process forgets that "conservative" means more than pro-life and pro-gun. Conservative also means, at least it used to mean, responsible in fiscal matters as well as in sexual and social matters. Limiting government spending, and especially limiting government's role in the economy. And, in the worst case scenario, if a gradual expansi Read More...
|
|
|
The National Broadband Plan debate has given rise to claims that the FCC intends to go beyond its traditional regulatory mandate and begin to aggressively refashion the Internet in such a way as to achieve particular social ends. As a case in point, today the FCC announced that is going to assert sweeping authority to begin to subject broadband networks to an outdated, decades-old regulatory framework.
So how should one view the recent comments by one FCC commissioner who would be exercising these new and expanded powers, Commissioner Copps, when he addressed the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies?
Throughout his comments he bemoaned the fact that broadband is not yet available to every American (even though electricity and telephone took decades longer to reach the near ubiquity we have today). Read More...
|
|
|
On Fox News Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace asked Florida U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, a Republican, if he still stood behind a statement he had made on the program a month earlier that he would support Social Security benefit cuts for people under the age of 55.
Rubio confirmed that he did, and went on to add that he believed all serious observers agreed that benefits would need to be cut.
We disagree, but more about that in a minute.
If we lived in a “post-partisan” political world, where ideas could be proposed and discussed in an intelligent manner, then we could have a rational discussion about benefits cuts.
But Washington’s political divisiveness has become a national embarrassment, with name calling, and scoldings and massive pieces of legislation being forced through without one single vote from the minority party.
Read More...
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Author: Bartlett Cleland || Location: Lewisville, Texas, USA