November 16, 2014 by David K. Sutton
On Net Neutrality, Ted Cruz Is Doing The Oligarch’s Bidding
On Monday President Obama voiced his strongest support yet for equal and fair access to the internet, calling on the FCC to “implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality.” In response, part-time Senator and full-time tool, Ted Cruz, said in a tweet that “‘Net Neutrality’ is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.” A few days later, Cruz wrote an op-ed, further explaining his bonehead assessment. “In short, net neutrality is Obamacare for the Internet,” said Ted Cruz in his Washington Post piece. “It would put the government in charge of determining Internet pricing, terms of service and what types of products and services can be delivered, leading to fewer choices, fewer opportunities and higher prices.”
But all Ted Cruz needed to do is lookup what net neutrality means before proclaiming a connection between it and the Affordable Care Act.
Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.
The idea of net neutrality is not new, and it is in fact the way the internet has operated from the beginning. But there have been recent events, like the deals Netflix struck with Comcast and Verizon, that have threatened the concept of equal and fair access. Given the importance of the internet for education, research, commerce, and more, an importance that Ted Cruz points out in his op-ed, why would we believe favoritism based on monetary means is a good idea when it comes to internet access?
Leave it to Senator Al Franken to set Cruz straight on what net neutrality really means.
“When [Cruz] says this is the Obamacare – Obamacare was a government program that fixed something, that changed things,” Franken said on CNN’s State of the Union. “This is about reclassifying something so it stays the same. This would keep things exactly the same that they’ve been.”
