Economists have long recognized that technological innovation and enhanced communication increase productivity and reduce friction in economic activity. And never before has technology’s impact on economic growth been as evident as it is today.
At IPI, we focus on technology and communications policy not only because it’s critical to economic growth, but also because government’s inherent tendency to regulate prospectively poses an active threat to the economic gains and lifestyle enhancements made possible by technological innovation.
The communications and technology industries are among the country’s most competitive and the biggest capital investors in the U.S. economy, and are thus prime engines of economic growth and job creation. It is critical that public policy encourages continued innovation and investment in the tech sector, and that we don’t limit the innovation upside with counterproductive taxes and regulations.
Court Slaps Down FCC Preemption of States' Muni Broadband Laws
The Sixth Circuit Court’s rejection of the FCC's unconstitutional preemption of state laws regulating municipal broadband projects is a win for constitutional federalism and taxpayers.
Internet Sales Taxes and the Republican Platform
The Republican Party's platform has taken a strong stand against state efforts to tax internet sales across state lines, an important step given the lack of policy clarity coming from the party's presidential candidate.
Republican Platform Opposes Expansion of State Tax Power Over the Internet
The Republican Party's platform has taken a strong stand against state efforts to tax internet sales across state lines, an important step given the lack of policy clarity coming from the party's presidential candidate.
GOP Platform Keeps to Well-Trodden Policy Grounds, Observers Say
"No one has any idea what the Trump campaign's positions are on communications policy," Giovanetti told us. "There's no evidence at this point that there is anything approaching a policy process on the Trump campaign -- which is part of why I thought the platform was more important in this peculiar year."
Hill Telecom Leaders Tout Trump Candidacy During GOP Convention
"We salute the Congressional Republicans who have legislatively impeded [Obama's] plans to turn over the Information Freedom Highway to regulators and tyrants," the platform said. It included language similar to what IPI recommended last week: "We will consistently support internet policies that allow people and private enterprise to thrive, without providing new and expanded government powers to tax and regulate so that the internet does not become the vehicle for a dramatic expansion of government power."
GOP Draft Platform Blasts Obama for Putting 'Survival' of Internet at Risk
Institute for Policy Innovation President Tom Giovanetti tweeted that the 2016 draft GOP platform's language on "protecting Internet from taxation and regulation is INADEQUATE" and proposed language that IPI would prefer.
San Francisco's "Tech Tax" Is a Revenue Grab, Not a Solution to Homelessness
Those who govern the City of High Taxes by the Bay have decided that even higher taxes, targeted at their most productive residents, will solve the problem of homelessness.
Watching TV Through Apps
Why, in this Golden Age of programming, should we allow the FCC to force dramatic change upon the business models of programmers and homogenize their creative output?
Only Congress Can Stop FCC's Sweeping Regulation of the Internet
The FCC’s regulation of the Internet must be viewed as being in direct contravention of Congress’ deregulatory intent, and as the biggest U.S. re-regulation in decades.
With FCC Set-Top Box Overreach, Time Is Now For Congress to Rein in Agency
The FCC's new set-top box regulations do not address any problem, but would create a whole new set of problems by redesigning the wildly dynamic and innovative video industry according to the whims of Chairman Tom Wheeler, and it's time for Congress to rein in the rogue agency.
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