Ted Cruz Addresses Questions from MediaCom About Broadband

Q: "Hi, Senator. Jeff Angelo from Mediacom. As you know, advanced communications technology is playing an important role in the development of the agriculture industry. So what can the government do to continue to incent companies to invest in not only broadband but cellular networks in rural areas?" A: Ted Cruz: "You know, it’s a great question. One of the things I think we need to do is to move a lot more spectrum to the private sector. If you look at the amount of spectrum the federal government controls, it doesn’t make any sense. And right now, the bureaucracy, frankly, is incentivized to protect their spectrum. So, for example, the Pentagon has a huge swath of spectrum, but it insists that it needs all of that spectrum even though it’s not all being utilized. And I think one of the, one of the things we need to look to do is to incentivize. So for example, at a time when we need to rebuild our military, I think one of the ways to incentivize the Pentagon to prioritize and give up some of its spectrum is to allow it to keep those revenues and use it for modernizing the military, so that you actually invert the incentive, give them a reason to turn it over. But you know, I’ll point out also something else about innovation. One of the most dangerous things we’ve seen in…in recent years in the Obama administration is their so-called Net Neutrality Rule. And what happened was, the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, issued a rule that’s directly contrary to statute, where they decided they are going to treat the Internet like a public utility. They declared the Internet is now a regulated public utility. And if you think about the Internet, the Internet is a great example where it has been an entrepreneurial haven. It has been free from meddling government regulators, free from taxes, free from a bunch of bureaucrats deciding what business model will work and what business model won’t. Well, this power grab – and it was dictated by President Obama, who said, “We want to take over the Internet. We’re going to regulate it.” And the FCC is claiming the authority to regulate prices on the Internet, to regulate terms of service, to regulate terms of access, and, you know, they claim this is for consumers. And listen, any of us who’ve lived on the planet Earth that is always the claim when federal government regulators are seizing control of something. They say they’re doing it for our own good. Well, can you think of any regulated public utility that is characterized by innovation that is characterized by dynamism? Every time the federal government takes over an industry, what happens is stagnation. It freezes it all in place, and then decision-making becomes the big boys who have lobbyists in Washington getting influence with regulators. I think we should keep the Internet free. Keep it free of taxation. I’ve led the fight against the Internet sales tax; again, a bunch of greedy government regulators trying to get their hands on more tax money. And I’ve led the fight to keep the Internet free of regulations. That way, we can have the dynamism that expands innovation, and broadband expands innovation in communication. I trust the private sector to innovate far more effectively than anything being dictated by Washington.