If You Like How the Government is Handling Ebola…
Things Are Going So Well…
…you’ll love how they’ll handle the Internet.
The late, inordinately great Ronald Reagan rightly observed:
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
So when the federal government says about Ebola “We’ve got this”- people have a problem believing it.
Obama Underwater on Ebola Response
Ah, the Barack Obama Administration - which has been caught lying over and over and over again.
Many Voters Say Obama Lies to the Country on Important Matters
81 percent of Americans believe that Obama lies to them at least “now and then”on “important matters.”
The Obama Administration has again and again offered Ebola assertions and assurances that Reality has subsequently demonstrated were…wanting.
The President has asserted Ebola isn’t transmittable beyond direct body fluid contact. That's not true.
In one of the most breathtakingly on-its-face anti-Reality statements ever, the Administration asserted a flight ban from afflicted countries would INCREASE the spread of the disease.
The American people think otherwise.
67% of Americans Support a Travel Ban From Ebola Affected Countries
Democrats are blaming the Administration’s Center for Disease Control (CDC)’s serial Ebola incompetence - the CDC being the government’s alleged “expert agency”on, well…disease control - on budget cuts. That’s not true either.
At $7 billion, the Centers for Disease Control 2014 budget is nearly 200 percent bigger now than it was in 2000. Those evil, stingy Republicans actually approved CDC funding increases in January larger than what President Obama requested.
The CDC has spent their titanic tally on just about everything - except disease control.
So the American people can be forgiven for arriving here:
Trust in Government at All-Time Low
Trust In Government Problem-Solving Reaches New Low
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is gearing up to unilaterally commandeer control of the Internet.
On Ebola, the allegedly Disease Controlling Administration - in fine Kevin Bacon “Animal House” fashion - has been repeatedly proclaiming “All is well”as things continue to get worse and worse.
Conversely, the Internet has been since just about its inception a government-free zone. And has a result become an ever-expanding free speech-free market Xanadu.
The Administration has been the Chicken Little of the World Wide Web. Running around decrying a “problem”that does not exist - and demanding a Huge Government “solution.”
The fake “problem?” Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may - one day, someday, maybe - block you from websites. Only they haven’t. And they won’t. Because they are in the customer service business - but won’t be for long if they refuse to serve their customers what they want.
The fake “solution?”
What’s Even Worse than Net Neutrality? Government Internet Reclassification to Do It
Reclassification will give the government the same regulatory stranglehold on the Web that it has had for seventy-plus years on landline phone lines. Which is why landline phone lines have remained just about undeveloped since FDR.
Oh - and this:
Reclassification Net Neutrality Could Be a 16.1% Internet Tax
Now we know why the government has created a faux Web crisis - so as to not let it go to waste.
But fret not, the government tells us. They will wield just some - and not all - of their massive new powers. They will practice “forbearance.”
“(F)orbearance”refers to a special magic power that Congress gave the FCC…which gives the FCC the power to say “you know that specific provision of law that Congress passed? We decide it really doesn’t make sense for us to enforce it in some particular case, so we will “forbear”(hence the term ‘forbearance’) from enforcing it.”
Sure. Because we can take the government at its word - right?
Like the CDC on disease control, the FCC is the government’s alleged “expert agency” on all things Internet. Except:
So the FCC is just about as honest and competent as the rest of the government.
How about, then, they not take over the Web?
Editor's Note: This first appeared in PJ Media.