It appears Al Franken is bringing his vast experience as a failed comedian and talk show host into the arena of telecommunications.
We can only hope this venture doesn’t turn out so poorly for the consumer as their regulation of the energy industry has.
Up to The Hill for more:
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) became the latest lawmaker to publicly oppose AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA on Tuesday, arguing the deal would harm consumers, stifle competition in the wireless market and lead to thousands of lost jobs.
Franklin complained.
“This transaction is not in the public interest. If approved, it would result in greatly reduced competition, the potential loss of thousands of jobs, higher consumer prices, and less innovation in technology.”
And it continued.
In an unusual argument, Franken also claimed the merger would undermine the principle of net neutrality “because it would place de facto control of our nation’s information infrastructure in the hands of only two companies.”
In a way it is interesting to witness Franken arguing for more competition in the market. We are all for that. Which also accounts for our opposition to the very government forces that destroy competition by removing from consumers the authority to decide what succeeds and what fails.
It is also interesting to note that in the end its down to this issue of net neutrality. Don’t be fooled though. Net neutrality has as much to do with neutrality as the fairness doctrine had to do with fair. Net neutrality is a pleasant euphemism for Stuart Smalley regulating our use of the Internet.
– Written by Kip Hooker at TheVitaminPress.com
Source: TheHill.com
This post was last modified on November 10, 2021
View Comments (12)
Al is simply saying to AT&T, "Hey when you were greasing all the palms in Dee Sleaze, I didn't get any. So PAY UP and then I'll shut up."
What Al doesnt realize is that even in Washingtonhole he is considered an irrelevant buffoon not worth wasing time or money on.
Who cares what Al Frankenfurter thinks? When the gooberment decided Ma Bell had gotten too big its britches we ended up with Atlantic Bell, Pacific Bell, Mountain Bell, all the little "Bells", providing the same telephone service we had before the breakup. And we had to pay more for that same service.
Now we have A.T.& T., QWest and Comcast, nothing more than Ma Bell under different names. It's just a damn phone connection, used when you want to call your mother or get a pizza delivered. I could care less who owns what or what name it is called as long as I can call who I need to call, when I need to call them.
Why is it when I see Al Franken I think of Barney Frank?
And how much competition is there if T-Mobile is just allowed to go broke and disappear? Jesus ffngg Christ, what a fathead.
Hey Al, Your a moron. Can you here me now?
He wants to increase competition everywhere except in politics.
I hope the deal fails - because of market conditions rather than gummint interference. As a T-Mobile customer, I will not stay on board when it becomes AT&T - I have no interest in paying money to a union shop that has a long history of being one of the most consistent and aggressive supporters of radical homosexual activist groups. Too bad, as T-Mobile's family plan is the lowest cost deal for me.
Check out MagicJack.
I'm a bit worried if the merger goes through. Then there'll be ATT and Verizon as megapowers, with Sprint a distant third, and that's about it. Not exactly a lot of competition.
There are plenty of other small telecom companies and then there is VOIP.
Even if this does limit competition, whether it be long term or short term, WHY THE HELL DO WE ALLOW OUR GOVERNMENT TO TELL PRIVATE ENTERPRISE WHAT IT CAN AND CANNOT DO!!!
As far as I can see, the founding fathers made only one mistake in their framing of the Nation. They should have made an Eleventh Amendment in the Bill of Rights, stating that NO Government involvement, intervention or regulation of private enterprise would be allowed.
You assume the government gives a damn about our constitution.
It may sound that way, but I would NEVER, EVER believe that the Government would give a rats ass about the Constitution.
The Constitution actually limits what they can do and we all know that the kakistocrats in D.C. will never allow anything or anyone to put limitations on them and their plans for the plebes.