Congressman John Sarbanes Favors FCC Takeover of the Internet

In response to my e-mail in opposition to the FCC subjecting the Internet to its ancient and bureaucratic controls, the Democrat Congressman of my unbelievably gerrymandered district in Maryland replied today:

Mr. Anderson,

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to net neutrality. I always appreciate hearing from individuals who carefully follow the legislative proceedings of Congress.  On February 4, 2015, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Wheeler proposed a set of rules to safeguard net neutrality. These rules include reclassifying broadband service as a public utility under Title II to allow for greater oversight and consumer protection; prohibiting the blocking of lawful websites, the impairing of lawful Internet traffic, and the prioritization of certain traffic for a fee; requiring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to protect customers' private information; and providing widespread access to Internet service. February 26, 2015, the FCC voted to approve the proposed rules.

 I strongly believe that technology-including broadband, digital communications and other information technology - is an important tool for the economic and social advancement of individuals and communities. Going forward, I also believe that we must put in place a regulatory framework that ensures the relationships between consumers and providers are fair and equitable. As a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which has jurisdiction over telecommunications issues, I will be certain to keep your views in mind when the House of Representatives considers any relevant legislation.

Again, thank you for your input on this important issue. If I can be of further assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

John P. Sarbanes
Member of Congress

To which I replied:

John,

Government does not make the affairs of man fair and equitable. It simply replaces voluntary acts of cooperation in the private sector with coercion to achieve political, rather than individual, purposes. With government so big that the People do not understand what it is doing, let alone the effects of its actions, those political purposes become the purposes of special interests. The takeover of the free Internet by the FCC only means that my individual choices will be replaced by the government's enforcement of special interests' will. All of the verbiage about protecting individuals is just the usual smokescreen behind which government once again wrests individual value choices out of our hands. It is a false front so that government can further expand its ignorant micromanagement of our individual lives.

You have to admit that you do not know me, so it is not plausible when you claim to be protecting my interests, about which you know nothing. What is more, it is highly pretentious of you to assume that you know better how to manage my life than I do. Because I know this, I much prefer making the voluntary associations with others in the private sector of my choice, compared to being the subject of government coercion in my associations.

Charles

Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.

http://www.AndersonMaterials.com
http://AndersonMaterials.blogspot.com
http://ObjectivistIndividualist.blogspot.com/

Of course the Big Government proponents have a biased viewpoint that government is benevolent, while companies operating in the private sector are largely malevolent. It is assumed by many that the profit motive pushes companies to behave immorally and without regard to the interests of their customers. How odd it is that the profit motive which is exactly what mostly motivates companies to behave morally and with a great regard for the interests of their customers is assumed by so many to have the opposite effects. Meanwhile, governments which have the power motive are assumed to be benevolent!

To be sure, when governments are small and effectively managed by the People with the intelligent use of their votes, government has a substantial interest in the best interest of the People. But as I have so frequently argued, when government becomes big enough, the People are no longer able to effectively manage it. While with the occasional company that comes along and has little interest in its customer's welfare, it can usually be avoided by taking one's business elsewhere, except when government has given that company a monopoly. The action to deny a government coercive control over us is usually more drastic. It requires us to uproot ourselves, our families, and our businesses to move out of the jurisdiction of that government. This is a sufficiently drastic remedy that its avoidance is a powerful argument for highly limited government.

Representative John Sarbanes Replies About Gun Controls

Sadly, people who do not believe in the 2nd Amendment are far too common in American society.  Most of them believe in the ubiquitous use of government force to dictate value choices and to micromanage the lives of individuals unknown to them and about whom they do not care even a smidgeon.

The way of life of a criminal depends upon the ability to initiate the use of force.  Having dangerous weapons is at the center of his profession.  Most Americans are very busy with their careers in the peaceful private sector in which force is not initiated.  We have two major dangers we face.  One is the individual or small gang initiator of force.  The other is the huge gang initiator of force which is Big Government grown well-beyond the scope of its legitimate powers by the constant refusal to recognize its constitutional limits and the guiding philosophy of government expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

The way the state government of Maryland enacts the sentiments of John Sarbanes is to put up many barriers to "dangerous weapons" acquisition and ownership.  The barriers are huge for busy people living peaceful lives, but in need of protection from those who initiate the use of force.  Those barriers are manifestly ineffective in keeping "dangerous weapons" out of the hands of criminals and busybody authoritarian politicians and their government employees. 

In 2013, the murder rate in Maryland was 6.5/ 100,000 people.  In the USA as a whole, it was 4.49/ 100,000 people.  So Maryland's already onerous barriers to "dangerous weapons" are not working, at least not to protect its citizens from murder.  To be sure, this conclusion does rest on the assumption that Marylanders are not just bad people compared to other Americans.  That may be bad people can be argued because they vote pretty consistently for Democrat authoritarians!  In fact, the very time-consuming and onerous barriers to gun ownership is very likely a major contributing cause to the high murder rate in Maryland.

The Cash for Clunker Politicians Program

John Sarbanes, Democrat Representative in the House of the incredibly gerrymandered 3rd Congressional District of Maryland, is sponsoring a new bill to provide oodles of cash for politicians.  The idea is to pose this as a way to give small campaign donors more say-so in Washington.  Small campaign donations would become tax-deductions and would be matched by money taken from the general taxpayer.  That some taxpayers will not want to fund a given politician is to be ignored and removed from his control.  The proposed Democrat plan is a Cash for Clunkers program for politicians.  We should call it Cash for Clunker Politicians.

This ignores the real problem that a too big and too powerful government takes too many actions few voters have the time to study.  They cannot figure out the consequences of the myriad effects on the People.  The People know government is too big and is often harmful, but they do not know what to do about it.  Indeed, they are very susceptible to being deceived and misdirected by politicians who regard it as their full-time occupation to become Master Manipulators of the disdained People.  The recent history of the Obama Administration and the Democrat Progressive Elitist members of Congress has made this picture of politicians especially clear.  As they proclaimed a new era of transparency, public documents have become massively less available to the public and insanely subject to being "lost."  It has become ever more obvious that the leadership of the Democratic Party has little but contempt for the People and is completely enamored with the Big Lie concept.

The People, being highly befuddled by massive government and the many highly deceptive politicians, tend not to vote because the responsibility has become too much of a time burden, too much of an intellectual effort, and too odious emotionally for them.  Since most citizens do not vote consequently and most of those who do vote do not understand what the government is doing, a huge power vacuum results.  Politicians such as Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Cardin, and Sarbanes take full advantage of this to institute new laws designed to pay off special interests and to provide them with a very lucrative job as power brokers.  They use that power to extort money from legitimate businesses which are the generators of wealth.  In turn, business money and the money of the many special interests who are not businesses, has to be distributed to politicians to either keep them from doing harm to those businesses and other special interests or to curry their powerful favor.  That this is the necessary result should be obvious to anyone, but apparently is not.

Sarbanes, son of Senator Sarbanes who saddled the People with the very deleterious Sarbanes-Oxley Law that has greatly reduced business productivity, is a sponsor of H.R. 20, the Government By the People Act.  This proposed law is just to create still another pot of money for politicians to use to increase their power and to fertilize the growth of still Bigger Government.  But note the as-usual deceptive title of the bill.

The only way to solve the problem of special interest control of government is to drastically reduce the power and scope of government so that it can be better understood by the People and so it will have much less potential to harm or favor special interests.  Any other solution is nothing but a deception.  Note also that the matching of deductible campaign contributions out of paid taxes is a violation of the freedom of conscience and freedom of speech of individual taxpayers.  A taxpayer should not have to fund the election campaigns of politicians he opposes.

It is informative to understand how Rep. John Sarbanes sets up this deception.  Here is his letter so you can read it yourself:

Dear Friend,

In today's political environment – where wealthy and well-connected special interests spend billions of dollars on elections and wield considerable influence in Washington – it's no wonder why Marylanders and others across the nation are fed up with government and turning away from the polls.

And who can blame folks for their cynicism? It's a perfectly rational reaction to the influence of big money on elections and on the governing machinery in Washington.

As you may know, the 2014 election set two disturbing records: more than $4 billion spent and the lowest turnout since the midterm elections of 1942. While there's no definitive proof of a causal relationship between these two trends, it's worth exploring.

For the average citizen, the most important motivation for casting a vote is the belief that, when your candidate arrives in Washington, he or she will govern in a way that represents your interest.

Unfortunately, Big Money is making a mockery of that motivation. Because deep-pocketed special interests are funding these campaigns, they are the ones calling the shots in Washington, and your interest – the public interest – gets left behind.

Still, there is reason for hope.

Most people who run for public office do so out of a sincere desire to help others and to make a difference in their community. Many are deeply frustrated by the outsized role of money in politics and long to restore Congress' credibility with the public. It's time for lawmakers to consider reforms that address the influence of big money and give everyday citizens a real voice in their government.

One path – putting limits on campaign expenditures – has been effectively blocked by the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United and the difficult challenge of passing a constitutional amendment to repeal that decision. But there is another way to address big money's influence: set up a competing small-donor system focused on everyday citizens.

For example, a tax credit for small-donor political contributions would give more Americans the means to participate in the funding of campaigns. Boost those donations with matching funds, and candidates will begin to search out small donors instead of going to the PACs and the big-money crowd.

Imagine a Member of Congress standing in your living room listening to your voice because you have the power to fund his or her campaign. That's the promise of a small-donor matching system. And that's also why I've introduced H.R. 20, the Government By the People Act – to empower everyday citizens and to amplify their voices in Congress.

Big money might have won this election, but there's still hope that we can take back our democracy. It won't be without a fight.

To learn more about what you can do to fight big money in politics, visit: http://ofby.us/citizen-cosponsor/.
                                            

Sincerely,


John P. Sarbanes

As I hope you can see, he does acknowledge aspects of the problem, but then proposes a solution that is no solution and will only make matters worse.  But all the while he poses as your friend.  He is anything but that.  He is a typical power-hungry Progressive Elitist who believes you are too stupid to choose your own values and manage your own life in a vibrant private sector.  No, you should be made dependent upon Big Government so it can protect you from Special Interests in his deceptive viewpoint.  What he neglects to say is that it is Big Government that is the machine that Special Interests use to control the People to their advantage and to do great harm to the People.  The idea that simply choosing better politicians and better managers for the Big Government will make the subsequent Big Government the friend of the People is simply insane.  It is a doomed attempt to reverse Cause and Effect.

The Framers of the Constitution understood the problem of Big Government and Special Interests and attempted to set up a mandate for a highly limited government of few enumerated powers so such problems would be minimized.  Because we have allowed the size and scope of government to exceed these limits at the national level and corresponding limits in most local governments, we have rule by massive and Special Interest-controlled governments.  We should always be wary of the fact that one of those Special Interests is politicians.  Our huge governments are not Government by the People anymore, but Government by the Politicians.  This Sarbanes Cash for Clunker Politicians bill is another slush fund for those Politicians.

Representative John Sarbanes Would Restrict Freedom of Speech

Representative John Sarbanes, Democrat, Maryland, is polling his constituents on their desires to limit the influence of Big Business on Big Government.  I am in his most incredibly gerrymandered district.  Here is his letter to me:

Dear Friend,

Many Americans feel their priorities get left behind in Washington and the priorities of billionaires and big corporations receive undue attention. Many tell me their voices are being drowned out by the special interests. I'd like to know how you feel about the role of big money in politics. Please share your thoughts with me in the survey below.

Do you believe big money politics is corrupting our government?

Yes No

Do you think everyday Americans deserve a way to fight back against special interest spending?

Yes No

Would you support a proposal to amplify the voices of everyday Americans in our elections

Yes No

Earlier this year, I introduced the Government by the People Act (HR 20) - a bipartisan bill with more than 140 cosponsors that would empower millions of everyday Americans to take back their government from big money special interests. To read more about the proposal and become a citizen cosponsor, pleas visit http://ofby.us
Sincerely,

John P. Sarbanes

I listened to John Sarbanes address the House on the bill he is sponsoring, along with many another Democrat in the House, and he only railed against Big Business.  He never mentioned any other type of special interest.  His bias is anti-business.  Of course he especially hit oil companies and made the many times debunked claim that they are heavily subsidized by government simply because they take the tax deductions provided to most businesses.  He had no complaints directed at the big political campaign donations of labor unions, trial lawyers, government employees, so-called green energy companies, teachers, and accountants who love complex tax codes.

The Sarbanes bill would provide everyone a tax credit for making a political donation, provide taxpayer's money to candidates based on how many people made donations to them, and provide additional money in the last 60 days of a campaign if some bureaucrat decides that a super PAC is slamming a candidate too hard in that time period.  So, let us see what this means:

• It now will cost a person nothing to aid the campaign of a candidate.  If it costs him nothing, he has even less reason to understand the candidate's purpose and the consequences of his political viewpoint.
• Hard-working, more productive people and corporations will have to provide funding for candidates who wish to use government force to redistribute their money to the many who pay little or no taxes through the taxpayer campaign financing requirement.  This enables such politicians to better buy the votes of those who pay little in taxes.
• Some bureaucrat, perhaps in the thrall of the President and his political party, will decide which candidates are being unfairly attacked by a big PAC and provide that candidate with taxpayer money.  I wonder if that will work any better than having the IRS decide who can set up a non-profit organization based on whether the organizational name has Patriot or Tea Party in the name or its purpose includes teaching the provisions of the Constitution?

 My response to him:

John,

As usual, your questions belie a bias based on a naive view of the role of government.

When government becomes big and dictates values to the People and starts micromanaging their lives, we all suffer for these quite obvious reasons:

• Government is too big for the elected officials to manage it well.
• The People cannot understand what the government is doing and all of the consequences of its actions.
• The People can no longer choose their representatives adequately.
• As the People lose control and understanding, they lose confidence in their government.
• Special interests step in to fill the power vacuum, manipulating just those policies that benefit themselves with no regard for the individual rights and welfare of most of the People.

The special interests include:

• Labor Unions
• Some Big Businesses
• Welfare Recipients
• Environmental Extremists and Global Warming Alarmists
• Trial Lawyers
• Government Employees including Teachers
  
• University Employees deriving income from Government Grants
• Exporters using Government Loans
• Banks using money printed by the Federal Reserve
• Ethanol Manufacturers and corn growers
• Some Farmers
• Shipping Line Operators
• PPACA Website Programmers
• Health Care Insurance Providers
• Really Bad American Car Manufacturers
• Power-Hungry Politicians
• Campaign Contributors to Power-Hungry Politicians
• Accountants due to Unintelligible Tax Laws Forcing Americans to Buy their Services
• Regulatory Consultants due to Unintelligible Regulations

No, John, you are not addressing the real problem.  The real problem is the Size of Government.  The one and only way to end the control of government by special interests is to reduce it to its very limited constitutional role of providing for the national defense, the post roads, and handing foreign affairs issues.  Then the national government will do much, much less harm to the People, be much better understood by them, and be much more capably managed by our Representatives.

Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.
Lab: (410) 740-8562
Mobile: (301) 830-1886
http://www.AndersonMaterials.com
http://AndersonMaterials.blogspot.com
http://ObjectivistIndividualist.blogspot.com/

I do not suppose I will get any special interest favors from John Sarbanes!  I am surprised he is up to so much mischief in Congress.  One would think he would be spending all of his time traveling between the far-flung isthmuses of his kingly domain, the 3rd Congressional District of Maryland, shown here in brown:

Only Big Government could create and love such a creature.

Representative John Sarbanes Proposes Law to Control Free Speech

The Representative of my incredibly gerrymandered Congressional District in Maryland is the socialist John Sarbanes, son of the former Maryland Senator.  He has just sent out a letter to his constituents in which he complains that:

In the 2012 election cycle alone, big interests such as the oil and gas industry and Wall Street contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to Congressional campaigns and equally vast sums to lobbying groups. Meanwhile, upwards of $1.3 billion poured in from Super PACs and “dark money” groups that float outside the reaches of our campaign finance laws.

 He has just proposed the following new law:

That’s why I am introducing the Government By the People Act.  This sensible and straightforward piece of legislation will do the following.

First, it will encourage the participation of everyday Americans in the funding of campaigns by providing a refundable $25 My Voice Tax Credit.  This will bring the voices of the broad public into the funding side of campaigns and democratize the relationship between money and speech.

Second, the bill will establish a Freedom From Influence Matching Fund to boost the power of small-dollar contributions.  To be eligible for these matching funds, a candidate must agree to a limit on large donations and must demonstrate broad-based support from a network of small-dollar contributors.  Amplified by the Freedom From Influence matching fund, the voices of everyday Americans would be just as powerful as the voices of the big donors.

Third, the Government By the People Act will provide candidates with an opportunity to earn additional resources in the home stretch of a campaign so that the voices of the people are not completely drowned out by Super PACs and other dark money interests.  In the wake of the Citizens United decision, this kind of support is critical to ensuring that citizen-backed candidates have staying power.

We can pay for these changes just by closing a few of the tax and regulatory loopholes that are the decades-old legacy of special interest influence in Congress.  It’s only fair that those who are responsible for breaking the policy-making machinery in Washington should bear the cost of fixing it.

It is very strange that he did not mention such special interest groups as trial lawyers, teachers, labor unions, environmental groups, feminist groups, Black American groups, and Hispanic groups.  Will his legislation equally suppress their freedom of speech as will his attempt to make taxes more unfavorable for groups who do not always reliably support Democrats?  It is clear that the only way to get the taxes to pay for this is to attack businesses and milk them.  His legislation can hardly acquire the funding it needs from labor unions, non-profit environmental, feminist, Black, and Hispanic groups.  This proposal is a very clearly anti-business proposal and makes no attempt at all to control many special interest groups.  What it does is force businesses to fund anti-business special interests.

The reason government is controlled by special interests is because government is too large for the People to understand what it is doing and how to control it.  Special interests step into the power vacuum and take over.  The People are frustrated with this situation, yet many do not understand that inherent in excessive government is control by special interests.  Good government limits itself to protecting the rights of the individual and is much, much smaller and much, much easier for the People to understand and control.

Big Government cannot be for the people or by the people.  Many will reject it with disgust because it tries to dictate what values the individual may pursue and will micromanage their lives.  Many others will actually want it to do more for them, but will be frustrated by what it does and unable to figure out how to make it do what they think is right.  Big Government can never be loved or even tolerated by the People.  Their present disgust is entirely understandable.  John Sarbanes proposed law is nothing but a veil to hide the real problem: the excessive size and scope of governmental power.

Maryland Congressman Sarbanes' Vapid Energy Ideas

Having written a note to the Congressman who rules my incredibly highly gerrymandered Congressional District in the Socialist State of Maryland that I support a free oil and gas industry, I received this pablum reply:

November 21, 2013

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me to express your support for the oil and gas industry. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

It is my hope that our energy sector will innovate and adapt to the needs and opportunities of a clean energy future. I believe that if we rise up to meet the challenge of climate change, we can solve so many complicated problems that our country is facing. By developing a long-term and sustainable energy strategy, we can address economic, national security, and environmental policy priorities in one fell swoop. We can diversify our energy portfolio and end our dependence on energy sources from volatile parts of the world. By revolutionizing our energy industry and becoming an exporter of clean energy technologies, we will be able to maintain our competitive advantage as a nation and ensure a prosperous future for our children. Just as growth in information technology served as the driving force behind the economic boom of the 1990's, the development of clean energy technology and green jobs will spur tremendous growth and offer long-term relief to the American economy.

Marylanders know that preserving and protecting our environment can go hand in hand with economic growth. The Chesapeake Bay, one of our most treasured natural assets, is at the center of our regional economy. As a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, I will continue to support reasonable measures that give Americans more energy choices. I will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind when voting on relevant federal legislation.

Again, thank you for your input on this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me about any matter of importance to you in the future.

Sincerely,

John P. Sarbanes
Member of Congress

I am sure that John will not keep my thoughts in mind when he votes on issuing orders that will cause oil and gas prices to rise for entirely irrational reasons and force residential and business users of energy to pay these high prices in exchange for unreliable energy.  John is advocating the same use of so-called green energy that is causing Germany and Spain so many problems now.

He talks about a degree of energy independence which alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and biomass have never delivered, but that the widespread use of hydraulic fracturing is substantially delivering with oil and gas today.  Maryland Gov. O'Malley has forced electric utilities to buy future wind and solar energy with the intent to pass the high costs onto Maryland users.  This is how John Sarbanes plans to address our economic problems at the national level also.

Ah, but these black and blue energy projects, called green by John, will produce jobs in Maryland!  Well, so far the only reason jobs are in Maryland is because a large fraction of the federal government employees, who suck in tax revenues from the entire nation, live in Maryland.  In addition, larger businesses in Maryland tend to be heavy government contractors in defense, medicine, and other R&D.  This is what really explains John Sarbanes' wish to have the government strongly take control of the energy sector and of energy use.  He knows that increased energy R&D funded by the government will disproportionately be contracted out to Maryland institutions and businesses.

This is badly needed in Maryland because between 2007 and 2012, there were 24 tax and fee increases in Maryland, which cost the economy $2.4 billion a year.  The Tax Foundation ranked Maryland number 41 for the worst state tax environment for businesses.  Maryland lost 6,500 small businesses with fewer than 100 employees between 2007 and 2012, while losing 40,000 jobs and 31,000 taxpaying households.  Imagine the conditions if Maryland were not so heavily funded by the federal government.

So, it is hardly surprising that a Democrat Representative is eager to damage the People of the USA in order to have Marylanders suck in their productive output through a straw from DC.

By the way John, climate change is one of the primary reasons a rational individual prizes our ability to use oil and gas.  Of course I say that understanding that it is natural forces, not man's emissions of CO2, that produced climate change in the past, does now, and will continue to in the foreseeable future.

With dumb fools like Barbara Mikulski and John Sarbanes and evil fools like Ben Cardin thinking themselves the Progressive Elite and better capable of making my life decisions for me than I am, you can see why I am an enemy of Big Government in a very concrete form.  This trio gets virtually everything wrong.  One would live a better and happier life by doing the opposite of what they want every Marylander to do in every case than one would following their preferences.  Yes, they are that wrongheaded.

Vote No on Maryland Question 5 to Oppose Super Gerrymandering

Question 5
Referendum Petition
Congressional Districting Plan (Ch. 1 of the 2011 Special Session)

Establishes the boundaries for the State’s eight United States Congressional Districts based on recent census figures, as required by the United States Constitution.

For the Referred Law
Against the Referred Law

Phrased this way, this seems like a reasonable Question to approve, but it is actually the approval of a Congressional districting plan which is so insanely incompatible with representative government that it is an embarrassment to the state once known as the Free State and also known as the Old Line State due to fielding the best unit of the Continental Army in the American Revolution.  Even the Washington Post recommends voting against this extreme instance of Democrat Party redistricting.  Here is the unbelievable gerrymandered map of districts set by the Democrats for Maryland:

I have the displeasure of being in Congressional District 3, which is shown in brown in this map.  Democrat John Sarbanes of the infamous Sarbanes-Oxley Act is to be the Representative elected by Democrat design in this district weaving its flimsy tendrils through Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore Counties, as well as Baltimore City.  My long-time socialist Representative, Donna Edwards, is in the new District 4 in violet in Prince Georges and Anne Arundel Counties.

Any serious concern for good representative government would understand that such districts should be kept in a minimum number of counties and should have relatively small circumferences relative to the area to make as compact a region as is reasonable.  This means the people in the district will have more in common and that they can get to a relatively central townhall meeting with their Congressman as easily as possible.