Biden’s FCC Is One Senate Vote Away from Being as Crazy as Biden’s FTC

The Latest from Seton Motley | Less Government | LessGovernment.org
The Latest from Seton Motley | Less Government | LessGovernment.org
Let Us Not Conflate the Two

Last Tuesday morning, I wrote and published this….

The FTC Is Hyperactive – And Attempting Time Travel

That very same morning, Republican Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioner Christine Wilson – announced her intention to become ex-FTC Commissioner by publishing in the Wall Street Journal this….

Why I’m Resigning as an FTC Commissioner:

“Much ink has been spilled about Lina Khan’s attempts to remake federal antitrust law as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.  Less has been said about her disregard for the rule of law and due process and the way senior FTC officials enable her.

“I have failed repeatedly to persuade Ms. Khan and her enablers to do the right thing, and I refuse to give their endeavor any further hint of legitimacy by remaining. Accordingly, I will soon resign as an FTC commissioner.”

I have only begun to delve into Khan’s craziness.  As Wilson chronicles, Khan makes it exceedingly onerous to delve into Khan’s craziness:

“Since Ms. Khan’s confirmation in 2021, my staff and I have spent countless hours seeking to uncover her abuses of government power. That task has become increasingly difficult as she has consolidated power within the Office of the Chairman, breaking decades of bipartisan precedent and undermining the commission structure that Congress wrote into law.

“I have sought to provide transparency and facilitate accountability through speeches and statements, but I face constraints on the information I can disclose – many legitimate, but some manufactured by Ms. Khan and the Democratic majority to avoid embarrassment.”

As is always the case: The bigger government gets – the smaller its transparency window becomes.

Wilson details Khan’s expansive disregard for the limits Congress has emplaced upon the agency – in order to illegally, relentlessly expand the agency’s power.

That’s not how the federal government is supposed to work – per the Constitution.  Per the Constitution, Executive Branch agencies can not do something – unless and until the Legislative Branch expressly empowers them to do that something.

The Executive Branch agencies have spent the last century-plus – stampeding further and further beyond these Constitutional boundaries.

Khan has the FTC headed well beyond the horizon line of Constitutional and regulatory sanity.

Now, let us please behold the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  Which has thus far been a respite from the Joe Biden Administration’s radicalness.

Why?:

“The FCC is made up of five commissioners – one of whom also serves as chairman.  A full contingent is three of the President’s Party and two of the other.

“It’s been a 2-2 (Democrat-Republican) tie since before Biden was sworn into office.  So the Commission hasn’t been able to unilaterally, illegally impose all sorts of new, awful government policy on the Internet and elsewhere.

“But Biden…has nominated longtime Leftist government-expansion activist Gigi Sohn as the fifth commissioner.

“Sohn is going to break much more than just the tie.”

Sohn is so awful, the Democrat-controlled Senate – that must confirm her – has now had THREE hearings to consider her candidacy.  And they STILL haven’t been able to bring themselves to confirm her.

Radical Sohn: Last Election Not a Green Light for Even More Hardcore Leftism:

“‘If Sohn’s nomination is approved by the US Senate in the coming months, Democrats would have a majority of seats at the five-member commission. That could pave the way for the FCC to reclassify Internet service providers (ISPs) as Title II carriers, a precursor to reinstating the net neutrality guidelines introduced under Democratic President Barack Obama but rejected under President Donald Trump, a Republican.

“Make no mistake: Title II Reclassification and Net Neutrality – are RADICAL government policies.”

Remember what we just said about Executive Branch agencies exceeding their Congressional, Constitutional limits?  The Barack Obama Administration’s FCC tried it – with Title II Internet Reclassification and Net Neutrality.  The Donald Trump Administration then reversed said impositions.  Then the DC Circuit Court did this:

“A U.S. court of appeals has ruled largely in favor of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to repeal the Obama administration’s net neutrality regulations, which treated internet service providers as utilities.

“The federal appeals court’s decision upheld the FCC’s reclassification of broadband Internet access service as an information service, rather than as a telecommunications service….”

As if that weren’t enough?  The Supreme Court last year ruled to rein in all agencies everywhere….

SCOTUS Declares Our Independence from DC’s Great Bureaucracy:

“Big Government aficionados everywhere are FREAKING OUT about the Court’s EPA ruling.  Because that’s the one that reins in not just the EPA’s Green Freaks – but bureaucrats festering throughout DC.

“‘Supreme Court Decision Likely To Limit Reach Of FCC And Other Federal Agencies:

“‘The case before the Supreme Court dealt with the environment, but the outcome has muddied the potential reach of all government agencies – including the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.

“‘Chief Justice John Roberts focused the majority opinion on what is known as the ‘major questions doctrine’ which essentially says federal agencies need ‘clear congressional authorization’ when adopting major policy shifts.’…

“There is perhaps no more clear cut example of bureaucrat overreach – than our decade-plus dance with the idiotic policy that is Net Neutrality.

“‘How SCOTUS’s Latest Decision Could Hinder Democrats’ Effort to Reinstate Net Neutrality Rules

“Congress has NEVER passed a piece of legislation that contains the phrase – or the concept of – Net Neutrality.

“So there is the antithesis of ‘clear congressional authorization’ for its imposition by unelected bureaucrats.  There is ZERO congressional authorization for it.

“So the FCC needs to finally, once-and-for-all – drop the idiocy.  It’s Congress’s job – if Congress want’s it.”

Does radical Sohn care about all of this, you know, rule of law – and multiple-court-reinforcement thereof?  Heavens no.…

Gigi Sohn Says FCC Can Act on Net Neutrality Despite Ruling

And here we be: One Senate conformation vote – from unleashing Biden’s FCC to be as radical as Biden’s FTC.

Let’s not, Senators.