The Left is in a perpetual state of anti-free market angst. Even the barest inkling of private sector activity drives them bananas. They want to stop it – and if they can’t, they try to retard it as much as possible.
Their main impediment agent is government. The more space government takes up – the less room there is for private enterprise. So the Left is in the government-growth advocacy business.
They do all of this under contorted pretenses – claiming to be representing the interest of “consumers” or “the public.” To take but one example:
Public Knowledge preserves…the public’s access to knowledge…(and) upholds and protects the rights of consumers….
But for what at nearly every turn does Public Knowledge (PK) actually advocate? More government.
PK is working to increase oversight for the implementation of data caps.
PK works to ensure that the public airwaves serve the public…. Since spectrum licenses are a limited resource, they should be distributed in a way that encourages competition.
“Increase oversight.” Government-directed distribution – “spread the wealth around.” Outstanding.
Of course nothing is less pro-consumer than the growth of government. In large part because the cost of big government is hay-yuge. And it’s paid by we consumers in the form of more and higher taxes – and higher prices for goods and services.
Anything that costs businesses more – costs us more. Higher business taxes are absolutely passed along to us. And the price of regulations is simply staggering.
(T)he total cost of federal regulations to the economy was $1.75 trillion in 2008.
And then came the Age of President Barack Obama.
Obama Regs Cost 20-Times Admin’s Estimate
Current federal regulations plus those coming under ObamaCare will cost American taxpayers and businesses $1.8 trillion annually, more than twenty times the $88 billion the administration estimates….
And it could grow…. Complying with Health and Human Services Department requirements alone…costs $184 billion a year, yet regulators are still drafting the rules for the 2,400-page ObamaCare law that kicks into gear in 2014.
Regulations Under Obama Cost Households $14,768 Yearly
Those households are the nation’s consumers. Every penny taxed away or regulated into oblivion is a penny we cannot use to consume.
Yet the Left demands even more government.
Groups Push Broadband Changes for Net Neutrality
(P)ublic interest groups want the agency to take a greater step to reclassify the way it regulates broadband services.
“Reclassify?” What’s that?
Go back in time to 1934 (and even before) – and illegally impose landline telephone regulations on the Web. The government regulates the daylights out of landlines – so Progressives want the government to jam the Web in there too. Which would allegedly allow them to reimpose Net Neutrality – and tax the Net, and….
That’s not overreach-y at all.
Kill the Comcast-Time Warner Deal, Consumer Groups Cry
(C)onsumer…groups…called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission (FCC) to reject the deal.
That’s not overreach-y at all, either. And if the government doesn’t kill a merger, it unilaterally uber-regulates the daylights out of it.
Comcast Makes Concessions To End FCC Probe Of NBC Purchase
“Concessions?” If you must play Mother-May-I with the government – and they hold your fate in their hand – there is no such thing as “concessions.” They are much more like at-the-point-of-a-gun capitulations.
“Today’s action demonstrates that compliance with commission orders is not optional,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
The perhaps unprecedented set of conditions would seem a tall order for any profit-motivated corporation.
Tall indeed. Meanwhile, the federal regulatory Leviathan is experiencing yet another tremendous growth spurt.
Almost $70 Billion in New Regulatory Costs From Obama’s First Term
All of these exorbitant costs of government further sap the wallets of We the Consumers.
All of which puts the lie to the Left’s interest in the consumer. Ever-larger government is the only thing that actually garners their attention.
