Conservatives are ramming another bill through committee this morning that would sacrifice jobs and economic development on the altar of right-wing, market fundamentalist ideology.
The legislation is a bill advanced by corporate cable giants to prevent local community broadband Internet networks from developing in areas not served by the cable giants. In a meeting full of complex parliamentary moves clearly orchestrated ahead of time, Republicans have even been moving to reconsider decent amendments adopted last week — apparently before the companies and GOP leadership got their marching orders down.
Amazingly (or maybe not so amazingly given the level of debate on Jones Street these days), the public comments at the meeting included rants from extreme right ideologues/corporate shills at Americans for Prosperity and a D.C. group called the Center for Individual Freedom. The two attempted to argue that it was better to leave the provision of broadband up to giant companies (who have left vast swaths of the state un-served and thus unable to compete for jobs and economic development) than to have community networks that have proven extremely successful.
Rep. Weiss said it best when she said the bill was “not about creating jobs but protecting monopolies.”
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.
