House Votes To Overturn FCC On Net Neutrality

suraj.sun writes with this quote from CNet: "House Republicans voted unanimously today to block controversial Net neutrality regulations from taking effect, a move that is likely to invite a confrontation with President Obama. By a vote of 241 to 178, the House of Representatives adopted a one-page resolution that says, simply, the regulations adopted by the Federal Communications Commission on December 21 'shall have no force or effect.' 'Congress did not authorize the FCC to regulate in this area,' Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), said during this morning's floor debate. 'We must reject any rules that it promulgates in this area... It is Congress' responsibility to delegate that authority.'"

slightly off-topic, but

[Presto Vivace]

this is a great video [youtube.com] on why usage based billing is a scam.

Re:No Force or Effect

[Locke2005]

Right. That's why Clinton left office with a huge surplus, while G. W. Bush managed to leave office with the largest deficit in history only 8 years later. Way to go with that "responsible parenting" thing, Repubs! Invading another country for no rational reason is something every responsible parent does! Oh, and that TARP bailout -- still trying to blame that on the Democrats, are we?

Re:No Force or Effect

[thaylin]

Wait so the FCCs job is not to regulate communications, and the EPAs job is not to protect the enviroment? Then what are they for?

Re:No Force or Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

Next, they will demand that there be a special provision which makes it illegal to be President if you're black and all muslims required to eat pork chops.

I think facetious and unwarranted accusations of racism ought to be condemned just as harshly as racism itself. Despicable.

Re:No Force or Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

There are no more moderate republicans. The ones you could consider Moderate have been marginalized, thrown under the bus, or left the party in disgust.
Were you paying attention during the last election? Moderates found themselves with new, and aggressively funded ultra-conservative opponents thanks to the effective uncapping of campaign contribution limits.

The party has been purged. All that remains are yes men.

*Preemptive response - No, the Democrats don't do it too you fake grassroots shill.

Re:No Force or Effect

[fermion]

The D's tried to build a responsible budget. A budget requires two things: Income and expenditure. From 1990-200 these two things were relatively balanced. Bush, Sr rejected the devastating parts of Reagan's tax cuts allowing Clinton and the republican congress to develop an economic plan that lead to a period of prosperity and growth. However, Bush/Cheney implemented even more devastating tax cuts with massive increase in the budget. NCLB cost untold additional billions in local taxes, and expanded the department education to the bloated level it is now, with a budget, at time, double what it was under Clinton. The unfunded war effort, which could have been paid for with increase gas taxes or reduction in other military spending, remains 100% deficit funded. Department of homeland security, which again expanded government, just like department of education, eats an additional 50 Billion a year, or half a trillion since it's inception as a jobs program for the otherwise unemployable. And let's talk about social programs. Medicare part D, which allows pharmcos to charge excessive prices for drugs because who cares when the government pays, costs 40 billion a year, or half a trillion over 10 years. As we say, a half trillion here, a half triliion there, and pretty soon we are talking about big money.

So what is the solution to the runaway budget and big government. A simpler tax system in which the rich pay a little more, the middle class pays a little less, and even the poor pay a little more. A country can't run when half of it's wealth is concentrated in a small minority of the people, especially when the minority refuses to capitalize. Microcredit is not efficient, we need real banks. Cut the size of government. Bring DOE back levels when it advised local education, not mandated what states were allowed to do, in clear violation of the constitution. Get rid of Homeland Security. The US is not a socialist country, and should not have socialist institutions. Cut military spending. If the military admits to wasting $178 billion, cut 300 billion. These things in itself will reduce the size of government and save at least $500 billion, 5X the amount that the coward tea party says they want. Cowards because they will cut Obama programs, not Bush programs.

As an additional measure, one that with small tax increases and a some other cuts can save us a trillion dollars a year in federal budget, cut the funding to states. Limit additional funding to 5% of revenue from the state. There is no reason why states like ID, MT, ND, SD and Alaska should be allowed to rob the federal purse while honest states like NY, TX, and CA suffer. If a state can't live within it's means, then let the local population solve that problem. It should not be up to the federal government to support incompetent local government.

Of course since this has nothing to do with responsible government, and everything to do with panicking white people realizing they are losing their gravy train, none of these things are going to happen. All we will hear about is how great Bonercare is going to be, and how awful affordable health care is, and at the end of the day we will have 30 billion cut from the budget not by any real change, but by accounting tricks.