Republican FCC Commissioner: Obama’s Internet Plan is “Worse Than I Imagined”

11 Feb, 2015 by Cassy Fiano

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Is there any kind of government overreach that Obama would not be a fan of? Probably not, and details of his new Internet regulation plan have a lot of people worried, including Republican FCC commissioner Ajit Pai, saying it is “worse than I imagined”.

“It is worse than I imagined,” Pai said during a press conference Tuesday in which he highlighted key aspects of the proposal, which won’t be released to the public until after the agency votes on it later this month. “The American people are being misled about President Obama’s plan to regulate the Internet.”

Pai first announced his opposition to the plan — which seeks to regulate Internet service providers under Title II of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and ban them from establishing tiered lanes of service — late last week, when he pointed out the plan’s identical nature to the net neutrality proposal put forth by the White House last November.

In a fact sheet distributed by Pai’s office Tuesday, the commissioner said the plan has the potential to eliminate popular consumer benefits like uncapped data plans and “contemplates” establishing billions in new taxes on broadband, “including fees to support the multi-billion-dollar Universal Service Fund and the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund.”

“These taxes will increase the prices American consumers will have to pay for broadband,” Pai’s office wrote.

According to Pai the way the plan tackles “usage-based pricing” means consumers using less data could end up paying to subsidize consumers who use more, and explicitly states “all rates charged by broadband providers will be subject to FCC regulation” based on “just and reasonable” criteria. The requirement will apply to both consumers and content creators like Netflix, Google YouTube, Amazon, etc.

“The claim that President Obama’s plan to regulate the Internet does not include rate regulation is flat-out false,” Pai said Tuesday. “The plan clearly states that the FCC can regulate the rates that Internet service providers charge for broadband Internet access, for interconnection, for transit — in short, for the core aspects of Internet services.”

Oh look, another Obama plan that promises to do one thing, and will actually do something completely different! Of course, for Obama and his liberals, this is perfect: it allows them to control and tax something that impacts virtually every single living American, as well as potentially have the power to shut down any dissenting opinion that they don’t like. Brilliant, right?