Even before the slumber-inducing effects of post-turkey tryptophan set in, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems to be gazing through the looking glass.
In perhaps its only nod to reality, the commission decided to postpone a meeting which is to include consideration, yet again, of net neutrality rules that would provide government with control of the Internet. Set for the first day of Chanukah and just a couple days before Christmas Eve—and certainly a time of less attention to all things regulatory—this seems to be just another example of more policymaking in the dark. The timing also takes advantage of Congress being out of town.
But this desire to have the FCC seize such power is not news, and is not surprising for an administration that has seized control of one industry after another.
What is surprising, though, are the fantastical justifications being used to try to convince others that such action is somehow good for them. As recently reported, a “senior commission official” said, "Net neutrality is about preventing anyone from regulating the Internet," apparently not appreciating that, in fact, net neutrality regulations are exactly the government regulating the Internet. That is, the government dictating what can and cannot be done online, which applications are acceptable, and what is in the customers’ best interest.
Perhaps the biggest canard launched came a couple weeks ago: that regulating the Internet under a more severe legal scheme would actually be less expensive. The reasoning is more Halloween frightening than Thanksgiving grateful—because a new regime would effectively quash many legal challenges. That control would cost taxpayers less. The FCC chairman wrote, "If the Commission were to alter its legal framework for broadband Internet services, the ensuing court challenge to that change might well be faster and less expensive than the alternative path of litigating the commission's jurisdiction to issue various substantive orders on a case-by-case basis under the current legal framework…"
Perhaps in some ways liberty, freedom and the free market are more expensive than government command and control, but only in the FCC’s Wonderland would the dictatorial control by the Queen of Hearts be “less expensive” than freedom.