Fed to Increase Its Power to Regulate Banks and Calls For 20 Billion Promising Internet For All

Do you remember the bailouts? Maybe the term 'recession' has a special meaning for you? How about Barney Frank and the housing crisis? The keyword here is 'regulation'. It's not enough that April 15, AKA political corruption payday, is approaching fast. Instead we have to seize ever more regulatory power. Don't take my word for it. Our friends at Reuters will tell you the story. Remember, these are the guys who blew it with housing and allowed a union to take co-ownership of a car company. Yeah, I trust these guys about as far as they can be thrown.

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve would win sweeping new powers over nonbank financial firms and keep much of its authority over banks, under revised legislation to be unveiled on Monday by the chief architect of financial reform in the Senate

Fed gets new oversight powers under Dodd bill | Reuters

And, since we have nothing better to do, there's the matter of how to spend in excess of twenty billion dollars. Maybe a payment on the interest of the national debt? Uh No. And don't look for anything even remotely constitutional either.

Folks, we have decided that universal access to the internet is a fundamental right and is worth over $20,000,000,000. Yep. Let's not worry about literacy or anything like that. Let's not put it into health care for our nations veterans. Instead we want to be double sure that everyone has equal access to internet porn amongst other things.

(Reuters) - U.S. regulators will announce a major Internet policy this week to revolutionize how Americans communicate and play, proposing a dramatic increase in broadband speeds that could let people download a high-definition film in minutes instead of hours.

Dramatically increasing Internet speeds to 25 times the current average is one of the myriad goals to be unveiled in the National Broadband Plan by the the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday.

U.S. to roll out major broadband policy | Reuters

Further into the story is the hook that better scare you off of this:

Officials have said the plan will ask Congress to fund up to $16 billion to build an emergency public safety system.

It would also tell lawmakers that a one-time injection of $9 billion could accelerate broadband reach to the 4 percent of Americans who do have access. Otherwise they could let the FCC carry out a 10-year plan to realign an $8 billion U.S. subsidy program for universal broadband access instead of universal phone access.

The biggest questions on my mind are why we will spend this kind of money when we don't need to. The internet isn't critical infrastructure. And, technology of all sorts is so competitive that growth and improvement are virtually assured. Nope, this smacks of political payback to a big campaign donor.

Now's the time to organize a call in to your reps and senators. Or, just let it happen.

FTFGIMAD
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