Obama’s Internet ‘takeover’ by the FCC as a Public Utility means ‘massive’ taxes, warns Sen. Mike Lee

President Obama shown using his laptop. AP Photo Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is stepping up his criticism of President Obama’s plan to regulate the internet, warning that new rules will lead to the types of taxes and fees slapped on telephones and cable service.
“Under this new regulatory regime, Internet service providers will be subject to these fees as well, and then pass them on to you, the consumer,” said Lee. “This is essentially a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on,” he added.
Lee’s warning comes in a new letter asking supporters to sign a petition demanding that the president withdraw his plans to reclassify the internet as a public utility. It follows other warnings from Lee on the issue.
In his latest, Lee compared the president’s action to Obamacare, the Veterans Affairs scandal and the IRS-Tea Party scandal. “These are just a few examples of what happens when we give government huge power without oversight,” he wrote in the letter, pasted below, that urges foes of so-called “net neutrality” to fight the administration.
His focus was on the potential for fees and taxes being passed on to users of internet services and the possibility that government regulation could lead to government censorship, as seen in countries like Iran and Russia.
“I am not accusing anyone of sinister motives here, but I am deeply concerned about the idea of any government bureaucrat having the power to tell companies what they can and cannot do. In the long term, this could have a chilling effect on political speech, in ways that today we could not even begin to imagine,” he wrote in a letter for the advocacy group Protect Internet Freedom.
Advocates, however, said the president’s plan would not not amount to a federal takeover, and would prohibit broadband providers from slowing or blocking most Internet traffic, and preserve an open internet, and free speech.
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