Members of Congress are a bunch of cowards. This week Congress raised the debt ceiling by $2.5 TRILLION. This should last until early 2023. Think about that. Congress expects the deficit to exceed $2.5 trillion between now and early 2023. They could have cut spending. They could have had a temporary debt ceiling increase that lasted until right before Tax Day or right before election day. You know, two days that government spending/taxation and members of Congress asking to be re-elected are at the forefront of everybody’s mind. They didn’t do either. What’s also annoying is the finger pointing between Republicans and Democrats as to who is to blame for the deficit and debt. Both parties are. That’s why they are cowards and deserve nothing but a lump of coal in their stockings.
Net Neutrality Anniversary… the Internet is Fine and Dandy
Four years ago this week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal Title II net neutrality rules. Now is a good time to reflect on the folly put forth by the left that the move would result in the downfall of the internet, especially as a Democrat-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) looks to reinstate net neutrality. Given the quietness from the left in the ensuing years as the dire predictions didn’t come to pass, it’s easy to forget the hoopla that led up to the FCC’s vote in 2017 on the issue. A policy adviser to former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai (who led the vote to repeal the rules) tweeted on Tuesday that “Four years ago today the FCC rightly repealed net neutrality regulations. And guess what? The Internet works fine. But never forget the hyperbolic predictions.” Pai noted in his own tweet on Tuesday that “the Internet died – or so we were told by politicians, ‘journalists,’ and others who should have known better.” Pai pointed out that since 2017, fixed broadband speeds are up 172 percent, mobile speeds are up 300 percent and millions more people have internet access. That’s because, as the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has reported, investment increased after the Title II rules and the uncertainty they created for providers were removed.
The Title II rules, as previously implemented, prevented internet service providers from blocking, throttling or prioritizing data, but there was scant evidence that providers commonly engaged in such behavior before Title II net neutrality rules were implemented. TPA, in a 2019 investigation, found few complaints of bad actions by providers after the rules were reversed. In other words, the predictions from the left that providers would take advantage of the situation haven’t come to pass. Despite no clear evidence why Title II and net neutrality were needed, Democrats seem determined to reimplement those regulations under new Democratic Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, who previously dubbed “corrupt” the decision to end the rules. Gigi Sohn, a former FCC counsel and self-described “net neutrality pioneer,” is the Democrats’ nominee for the open fifth seat on the commission and is a big proponent of the plan to reimplement the rules. She said in a 2019 interview with Vox that the FCC under Pai “abdicated its responsibility to protect consumers and competition in the broadband market.”
The truth is that the decision by Pai and his fellow Republicans on the FCC in 2017 has boosted investment and broadband growth in the ensuing four years. A reversal of course would be a mistake and stymie the progress made to close the digital divide under the previous administration.
European Tech Follies
Europe is a beautiful place to visit. But, never ever should U.S. lawmakers follow the lead of what they’re doing to stifle internet investment or regulate tech companies. Margrethe Vestager of Denmark is a politician serving on the European Union’s (EU) European Commission. She most-notably serves as the Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age. Indeed, it is a very bureaucratic title, emblematic of Europe’s very bureaucratic approach to most things, but especially technology, innovation, and competition policy. Even though Europe’s track record on technology has been abysmal, Vestager spent most of last week in Washington being warmly received by officials in the Biden administration and members of Congress from both chambers and both parties. There seems to be a growing eagerness in Washington to follow Europe’s approach on tech policy. In fact, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just released a joint statement with Vestager announcing the “Launch of EU-US Joint Technology Competition Policy Dialogue.” While America should continue to share deep economic and diplomatic ties with US allies in Europe, the fact is that cooperation with the Europeans on tech regulation is something that should alarm Americans. Technology regulation is an area where the Eurozone acts more like a two-faced neighbor jealously eyeing America’s fancy cars in the driveway rather than a friend. The EU has a well-deserved reputation for top-down, preemptive, one-size-fits-all regulation. Such was a chief complaint behind the Brexit movement. The tech sector and competition policy are no exception. That little box you must click to accept cookies on almost every website these days, which doesn’t really do anything besides make the internet a lot clunkier is all thanks to the EU. This heavy-handed approach reveals itself when looking at where tech companies have come to thrive. There is plenty of grey area in terms of what constitutes a “tech” company or an “internet” company. There are also different measures of a company’s size, from market capitalization (market cap) to revenue. Yet, regardless of how one parses these definitions, Europe simply does not have a major tech company on the scale of those found in the United States and China. Only
one company based in the EU, SAP, makes it into the Global Fortune 500, worth about $160 billion. The largest American tech companies are valued in the
trillions of dollars.
The lack of significant European tech companies is about as stark as those satellite photos showing the Korean Peninsula night. The results of the differing policy approaches are painfully obvious. The population of the EU is roughly 50 percent larger than that of the United States. The EU economy is still larger than China’s, itself home to several major global tech companies by multiple metrics. Without intervening policy differences, one would expect the advanced economies within the EU to produce at least a few tech companies of significance, but alas there are almost none. Lacking their own tech companies, EU policymakers and European national governments have taken to routinely fining, taxing, and regulating foreign tech companies (particularly American firms) as a form of digital protectionism for their own struggling tech sector. For example Italian competition authorities fined Amazon $1.3 billion last week. Europe is effectively waging a digital trade war against American firms. To their credit, at least one part of the Biden administration, the Department of Commerce under Secretary Gina Raimondo, has been willing to say as much. Releasing a statement coinciding with Vestager’s visit, Raimondo noted that EU proposals, “unfairly target American tech companies.” Yet it appears the EU is gaining allies from policymakers elsewhere in the American government who are supposed to be representing and advancing America’s interests. Of additional concern is the EU’s blithe approach to cybersecurity under Vestager. One major competition policy thrust of the EU, gaining traction in the US as well, is forced side-loading capabilities for products such as smartphones. Side-loading essentially means building in access for third-party applications and app stores that bypass the filters of device manufacturers’ app stores, such as those of Apple on the iPhone. While done in the name of competition, the problems of this practice are similar to that of building law enforcement backdoors to data encryption. Once the vulnerability is there for the good guys, it’s still there for the bad guys. Vestager has dismissed these concerns outright, all-but ignoring the growing problems of ransomware, state-sponsored cyberattacks, and other malware.
As the global economy increasingly integrates and moves online, accelerated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the dominance of American firms should be a goal of policymakers. They should want the online world tied to the success of American economic and cultural interests. Much as the US Navy dominates the old channels of commerce, American firms currently secure much of the vast and growing online ocean and these economies of scale are necessary at the scale of the World Wide Web. Following Europe’s path to digital irrelevance would be a catastrophic mistake and risk ceding the future and security of the tech sector to countries without shared values.
BLOGS:
MEDIA:
December 10, 2021: ePrescott News quoted TPA in their article, “Is Biden’s Energy Policy a ‘Trillion-Dollar Transfer Payment’ to China?.”
December 10, 2021: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) quoted TPA in their story, “Debate over how to spend Maryland's gambling proceeds includes tax relief.”
December 12, 2021: The Santa Barbara News-Press (Santa Barbara, Calif.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Report says pole attachment regulations harm broadband growth.”
December 13, 2021: I appeared on the Tim Jones Show on KWTO 93.3 FM (Springfield Mo.) to talk about inflation and the reconciliation bill.
December 13, 2021 WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about inflation.
December 14, 2021: I appeared on KWTO 93.3 FM (Springfield Mo.) to talk about drug price controls.
December 14, 2021: American Family News quoted TPA in their article, “War on gas engines fueled by taxpayers' money.”
December 16, 2021: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about interest rates and the economy.
December 17, 2021: The Center Square ran TPA's op-ed " Republicans abandon winning argument in mobile technology software debate."
Have a great weekend!
