Senate Faced With Major Decisions: Do They Support More Gov't Control Or The Rights of A Free People

Today in Washington, D.C. - Nov. 7, 2011
This week the House is not in session. The Senate will reconvene at 2 PM today and be in a period of morning business.

ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT
Current Deficit: $1.234 trillion
Current National Debt: $14.978 trillion
Debt Per Household: $133,006
Debt Per Individual: $47,921
Unemployment Rate: 9%
Consecutive Months of Budget Deficit: 37

Congress's Average approval for early to late October was 12.7% according to RealClearPolitics. Average disapproval was 82.3%. (This was unchanged from last week.)

According to the Economist, 44% of adults say the economy is the most important issue to them - no issue received a higher percentage. 80% say the economy is a “very” important issue to them.

Right Track/Wrong Track: The RealClearPolitics right track average, which covered mid-October to early November was 20.4%. The wrong track average was 73.6%. (Last week’s right track average, which covered mid- to late October, was 19%. The wrong track average was 74.8%.)

At 5:30 PM, the Senate is scheduled to vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 674, the bipartisan, House-passed bill to repeal a requirement that government contractors have 3% of their payments withheld for taxes.

Later in the week, as the deadline approaches for Congress to disapprove of the FCC’s net neutrality regulations, the Senate is expected to consider a resolution of disapproval, S. J. Res. 6. This disapproval is critical. Let your Senator know that they need to vote Yes on this bill to rein back the FCC. More info follows. As explained by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) at Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing, Net Neutrality (FCC) regulations would set up the FCC as the Internet’s “gatekeeper”: many innovations in the way the Internet is accessed and used would have to be approved by the 5-member panel to ensure they would not “discriminate” against certain users. But it is precisely the lack of such government gatekeepers, Hutchison noted, that has spurred the Internet’s tremendous success – including as an engine of economic growth. “There is no need for us to mess around with that kind of success,” she added. “It is a success, and it doesn’t need fixing.”

Detailed background on the advancement of net neutrality has been offered in Phil Kerpen's new book: Democracy Denied. Kerpen details: ". . . in Washington, unfortunately, bad left-wing ideas never seem to die, and with the Obama election, advocates of regulating the Internet in the name of "net neutrality" had an ally all the way to the top. He would not disappoint them.

Obama and his transition team chairman [extreme progressive] John Podeesta hired Michigan law professor Susan Crawford - who openly called for reducing the Internet to a public utility - to oversee the transition at the FCC.

Ms. Crawfords oversaw Obama's selection of a close friend . . . Julius Genachowski, as the FCC's chairman. Obama then hired Crawford as a White house staffer and a member of the National Economic Council. She was the point person in the White house on Internet regulations - his Internet czar. The . . . marching orders from the top were clear: disregard public opinion, common sense, and the intentions of Congress -- and find some way to regulate the Internet in the name of Net neutrality."

On Dec.21, 2010, the FCC voted 3 to 2 to regulate the internet. Seton Motley, president of Less Government called the FCC's action a "worse power grab than ObamaCare." Motley said, "It was done without authority from the People's representatives. In fact, 302 of them (inlcuding more than 80 Democrats) told the FCC not to do it. Then there was the D.C. Circuit Court, which ruled unanimously that the FCC doesn't have the authority. More than 150 organizations, state representatives, and bloggers gave them the anti-Nike "Don't do it." So too did seventeen minority groups (that are usually almost always in Democrat lockstep) and many additional normally Democrat paragons - including several large unions, several racial grievance groups, and an anti-free market environmentalist groups."

In my opinion and the opinion of most Americans, this issue before the Senate is not left verses right (in the traditional sense) or Democrat verses Republican. It is progressive elitist socialism verses the rest of America. Unfortunately, it is within the Democrat Party that this movement is currently operating. But the same dangers could exist in the future with elitists in any political party whom believe they have the need to control the voice of the people.

It is patently obvious that net neutrality will result in reduced access and eventual suppression of freedom of speech. We can ill afford giving up any avenue of free speech which is used by both left and right minded citizens to freely address issues. Free speech is used by Americans to address and even mock actions government officials that walk away from the mainstream of America.

Consider Phil Kerpen's warning, "Once we accept that it's the role of the government to regulate the economics of the Internet and the way traffic is managed on the network, we'll start down a path in which government not only designs and manages but also builds and owns. As taxpayers, we'll pick up the tab of enormous costs of building broadband networks that are regulated so strictly they can't even earn a market return. And the government-owned and -controlled network will almost certainly be subject . . . to pervasive content restrictions."

The Senate is also expected to take up a resolution of disapproval of the EPA’s cross-border air pollution rule, S. J. Res. 27.

This afternoon, the Senate will finally have the opportunity to vote on one of the many jobs bills that have passed the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis but have so far gone nowhere in the Democrat-run Senate. The bill would repeal a requirement that federal, state, and local governments withhold 3% of any payment to a contractor they do business with for taxes. Instead of investing in their business and hiring workers, these contractors have to send their money to the government, even if they wind up not owing that much in taxes.

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, explained the reasons for repealing this mandate in the Weekly Republican Address. “[A]ll the mandate will do is, is take more money out of our economy at a time when quite frankly we can least afford it. And as a result, businesses will have less money to hire and pay new workers. The costs of enforcing this unfunded mandate will actually be higher than the revenue it raises by almost eight to one; now only in Washington does this make sense; listen, it’s a job killer.”

This bill received 405 votes in the House, among those 170 Democrats. The Senate version is co-sponsored by a number of Democrats, as well. Further, the White House has signaled its support for this bill, as it was one of the few bipartisan proposals included in President Obama’s recommendation to Congress in September.

This legislation stands in stark contrast to the series of partisan bills Democrats have pushed in the last two months, clearly designed to fail and make a political point. They were stuffed with more temporary stimulus spending that has failed to live up to any of the promises of Democrats about turning the economy around or “saving or creating” jobs. Further, they all included permanent tax hikes in the middle of a recession. They attracted bipartisan opposition and failed.

So what will Democrats do? As Sen. Brown put it, “[T]he decision pretty much rests with Majority Leader Harry Reid. Are we going to do something for the American people, or are we going to let politics win out again? . . . This jobs bill comes at the right time, for the right reasons, and it deserves a prompt vote on the Senate floor, without any gimmicks that will delay or jeopardize passage, so the President can sign it into law right away.”

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