As the American people go about their day, their lives are frequently filled with electronic devices, but that is changing. Huge telecom businesses have sneaked into our government and made some unpleasant changes. Fortunately, the Democrats are working to protect us.
Generally speaking, the Republican party is all about big business and individuality. On the other hand, the Democratic party believes that the government is there to protect us, all the way from the military to the water we drink.
For example, the GOP wants to make government so small that, as Republican Grover Norquist famously said in Mother Jones, “I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” Then, there are House Speaker Paul Ryan and Donald Trump who want to slice funds away from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
To everyone freaking out about #NetNeutrality: the FCC’s repeal can be blocked by Congress. THE FIGHT ISN’T OVER. We’re going into #RedAlert to sound the alarm before the Senate votes next week. Join us: https://t.co/jOdRU2RRFY pic.twitter.com/eprW6qtWCM
— Fight for the Future (@fightfortheftr) May 8, 2018
On the other side, Democrats vote against the budget cuts that would cause untold suffering and deaths beyond count.
Now, the Democratic party is once against coming to our rescue. The Senate has a vote coming up to kill President Barack Obama’s guarantee of an open internet, also known as “net neutrality.”
Trump put a guy in charge of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which currently controls the internet. Also, since a Republican is president, three of the five voting board members are also Republican.
Basically, the man sitting in the Oval Office broke the internet into two parts. People and companies with the big bucks can afford a subscription to faster, more efficient, and broader in scope access. The rest of the country would have to settle for the slow speed lane with limited access internet service. In other words, the providers would choose what voters can see on the internet.
Two independents who caucus with the Democrats, 47 of the 49 Democratic senators, and Republican Senator from Maine, Susan Collins, will vote against Trump’s unfair bill. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has been battling cancer, so he probably will not vote.
That means, for the first time in quite some time, the pro-internet neutrality Democrats could actually win the vote 50- 49. They plan to file a petition to make the Senate vote on it after 10 hours of debate on the floor, per the Congressional Review Act.
The Senate could approve the measure, but it still probably would not pass the Republican-heavy House of Representatives or a Trump veto.
States have begun to take an active role in their rights in the face of Republican governing missteps. A group of 22 state attorneys general filed a legal challenge to halt the Trump administration from killing off net neutrality.
There are some who believe that the internet should not fall under the FCC. There is much to support treating the internet like any other major utility.
AT&T sent Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, $200,000 recently. The purpose of that money is still under investigation. However, this giant corporation is one of the service providers against net neutrality.
Why? ATT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are the major internet providers. They stand to make a huge amount of profit over this new source of income.
There are some companies against Trump’s act. Alphabet and Facebook are strongly against the vote to reverse President Obama’s gift to the public.
Featured Image via Getty Images/Nicholas Kamm.
