White House Responds To Net Neutrality Petition

bostonidealist writes "The White House has officially responded to a We The People petition created on January 15, 2014, which urged the President to 'direct the FCC to classify ISPs as "common carriers"' after the D.C. U.S. Court of Appeals 'struck down the Federal Communications Commission's open internet rules.' The White House statement says, 'absent net neutrality, the Internet could turn into a high-priced private toll road that would be inaccessible to the next generation of visionaries,' but notes, 'The FCC is an independent agency. Chairman Wheeler has publicly pledged to use the full authority granted by Congress to maintain a robust, free and open Internet — a principle that this White House vigorously supports.'"

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[Anonymous Coward]

>I love how Obama signs 100 executive orders a day

Your post was satire, right? In reality, Obama has issued less executive orders per year than every other modern President.

>he can't be bothered to ask the Cable and Telecom Monopolist he appointed to chair the FCC to do anything.

It's like you didn't even read what he said, or just assume he *means* the opposite of what he says...but given your past history of inaccuracy....

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[Cordus Mortain]

I call BS. On average Obama signs only 38 executive orders per YEAR. On average only one more than Bush, and 10 less than Reagan https://www.politicususa.com/2014/02/16/myth-busted-analysis-reveals-president-obama-behaving-dictator.html [politicususa.com]

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[geekoid]

when something sound ludicrous, you should look it up instead of blindly repeating it like some half-wit parrot.

http://www.snopes.com/politics... [snopes.com]

The quote ois accurate, so I"m not sure why you are porting it. Oh Right, you are a half-wit parrot.

Re:Are they saying the FCC isn't in the executive

[geekoid]

Correct. It is an independent regulatory agency.

"So how about hurling metric boatloads of attorneys, engineers, sociologists or what have you, at the FCC, to convince them that ISPs are really common carriers?"
How about that? have you sent them a letter? have you contact local experts to get them to send a letter? organize anything?

Or do you just complain until someone else does all the work?
And yes, logically they are common carriers.

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[Cordus Mortain]

*sigh* 2 minutes of Googling demonstrates that average hasn't actually changed much: https://www.federalregister.go... [federalregister.gov] 2013 - 21 2012 - 38 2011 - 33 2010 - 35 2009 - 39 Super majority or not, he signed more in the first two years than he did in the second two.

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[the_B0fh]

that super majority lasted a matter of days. 24 days.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/... [usmessageboard.com]

It really isn't that difficult to google for the facts you know. Really, seriously.

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[icebike]

It's like you didn't even read what he said, or just assume he *means* the opposite of what he says..

Its like YOU didn't read what he said.

He said nothing, he promised nothing.

Instead he delivered PURE 100% Obama speak for "Yeah I hear you, now STFU and stop raining on my parade."

The FCC is an independent agency. Chairman Wheeler has publicly pledged to use the full authority granted by Congress to maintain a robust, free and open Internet — a principle that this White House vigorously supports.'

He sort of fails to notice the Courts just took away all of that Congressionally Granted Power.

The President must follow Congress' laws...

[IgnorantMotherFucker]

... that is, should he have chosen to sign the laws, the laws passed without his signature while Congress was in recess, or the congress overrode his veto.

Strictly speaking, President Obama cannot just declare that ISPs are Common Carriers. I expect the law says that the FCC determines that, and FDR or some such signed the law that established the FCC, at the time the Common Carrier status was to regulate the phone companies.

However the president does have a lot of power, as I said, to present evidence to the FCC during hearings, to write friend of the court briefs, to petition the courts and so on.

But I'm pretty sure he could not just sign an executive order.

Were that the case, that an executive order could just overturn a law, we'd see a lot more executive orders than we presently do.

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[JMJimmy]

I call BS too. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu... [ucsb.edu]

Bush: 290 orders signed
Obama: 169 orders signed

Re:Translation: Piss off, Peasants

[DamnOregonian]

He's actually not the retard, he's informed. Money need not come from a fiscal year budget act. A great example is the $1.4T deficit of FY2008. The budget as passed had a $400B deficit between outlays and projected receipts. TARP and the ARRA were both passed after the FY2008 budget was passed, making them "off-budget", giving us a total deficit of 800B. Then, outlays came up $800B short of the amount projected on the budget. This was actually a systemic issue during Bush. Many budgets were passed with vastly optimistic receipt projections, making their budgeted deficits artificially low. It seems common for people to use absolute dollars when trying to hammer on Obama for the deficit, and then reducing it to mere percentages when talking about the reduction in the deficit that has occurred since FY2008. To put it in absolute dollars, the deficit today is $700B less than it was the year he took office, or said another way- Obama has presided over the largest spending reduction in US history. That's of course a slanted viewpoint, but so is the one being peddled trying to make him appear to be a spend-monger.