Yesterday, we wrote about the Joe Biden Administration’s two nominees for permanent gigs at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It took Biden, Inc. a long time to name them — and the Leftist natives were getting inordinately restless.
Biden Camp Staffing Takes Too Much Time
Biden’s Baffling FCC Delay
Biden Faces Looming FCC Problem If He Doesn’t Move Quickly
Should the Senate confirm Biden’s nominees, the FCC will be fully staffed — and the natives will be expecting immediate action.
This action is, however, in the exact wrong direction.
How Long Will It Take Biden’s New FCC Picks to Restore Net Neutrality?
The policy of net neutrality is extremely bad. You can think of a thousand reasons.
Which one directly costs us most? Net Neutrality outlaws Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from charging Big Tech companies — Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, etc — anything at all for all the Internet bandwidth they use. It is a lot of bandwidth that Big Tech companies consume. Big Government gives Big Tech this huge crony favor.
And of course, Biden’s inanities notwithstanding, nothing government does is “free.”
It has been hundreds of billions in cost for ISPs to build, maintain, and expand their Web infrastructure. There are many more. The investment has to be recouped. And there are only two groups of people whom they can charge for the service they provide: Big Tech — and us.
We will pay exponentially more for tiny amounts of bandwidth that Big Tech uses because the government has outlawed Big Tech from being charged for their massive bandwidth. We are forced to mass-subsidize Big Tech by government through net neutrality.
The government will, of course be taking our money. The government will univocally change the Internet regulatory classification (Title II revision) to protect its Net Neutrality power grab. This will result in yet more government expansion. It will allow the government to tax the internet as it does our phones.
Phone taxes, you ask…?
A Big Tech Crony-Free Ride that Must End
“Here’s another Big Tech crony benefit that we haven’t addressed in more than a little while. Take a look at the Universal Service Fund (USF).
“What is the USF?This is:
“‘(A) system of telecommunications subsidies and fees managed by the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intended to promote universal access to telecommunications services in the United States.’
“‘Fees’ – ??? Government never wants to call its taxes ‘taxes.’ And the USF taxes are MASSIVE….
“More Broadband Access for Everyone? Eliminate the massive government taxes and fees
“‘On wireless, there is the Universal Service Fund (USF) tax. It is currently at a staggering 18.1%. It is automatically raised every three months. And can also be raised whenever by three votes from unelected Federal Communications Commission (FCC) bureaucrats.’
“That tax rate has become an even more monstrous 33.4% in the second quarter of this year. And it’ll be even higher this quarter — because it goes up every quarter. This is ridiculous.
“Guess who gets taxed?These are the results:
“‘Telecommunications companies must pay a percentage of their interstate end-user revenues to the Universal Service Fund. This percentage is called the contribution factor.’
“‘Contribution’” – ??? Government never wants to call its taxes ‘taxes.’
“And did you note who pays — and by omission who doesn’t?
“ISPs pay. We do, too. Take a look at your telephone bills.
“But monstrous Big Tech doesn’t pay a dime. How’s that for even more cronyism?”
Big Tech benefits mightily from the hundreds of billions of dollars government has taxed and spent connecting more people to Big Tech’s websites. But Big Tech doesn’t have to pay the USF tax. We do. We are mass-subsidizing Big Tech again.
And rather than addressing this massive disparity — and having Big Tech kick in to the USF fund?
Senate Republicans propose making big tech pay for internet infrastructure
“The Funding Affordable Internet with Reliable Contributions Act…directs the (Federal Communications Commission) FCC to consider collecting Universal Service Fund (USF) contributions from Big Tech companies ‘such as YouTube, Netflix, and Google,’ the lawmakers announced.…”
Big Government may unilaterally grant another Big Tech crony-gift. We will once again be required to fork out billions or billions of dollars.
It is 2021. The government of the cronies for the cronies.
We the People are royally screwed. To pay the price. To shut up about it.
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