Former Wall Street Journal Publisher, Free-Market Allies Support Cruz on Internet Freedom

WASHINGTON, DC -- Last week Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, unveiled four principles to protect Internet freedom, which has earned praised from numerous free-market leaders.
 
Here is what people are saying about Sen. Cruz’s efforts:
 
“Sen. Ted Cruz got it right last week when he tweeted that Title II would be ObamaCare for the Internet.”
— L. Gordon Crovitz, former Wall Street Journal publisher and author of the Wall Street Journal’s Information Age column
 
“Private Internet providers already compete with each other to provide broadband access to millions of Americans, and limiting their ability to sell their products how they see fit will stifle innovation and competition, not encourage it. Sen. Cruz is right that imposing new government controls on the Internet will lead to fewer choices, fewer opportunities, and higher prices.”
— Chris Chocola, President, Club for Growth
 
“Heritage Action will move vigorously to oppose any policy that weakens Internet security, disrupts online growth, imposes new Internet sales taxes, or restricts online free speech rights. We are glad to see Sen. Cruz has made it clear he will, too.”
— Michael Needham, CEO, Heritage Action for America
 
“The greatest threat to the Internet is the slow encroachment of government power. Public utility regulations lead to monopolies and slower service. Imposing Title II on the Internet would open a Pandora’s box of larger broader government control worldwide. Senator Cruz’s position was the bipartisan consensus in the 90's: Title II is unwise and unnecessary. Congress, not the FCC, should decide how to address hypothetical concerns about free speech and anticompetitive conduct — while maintaining the regulatory light-touch that began under President Clinton and continued under Republicans. That ‘Hands off the Net’ approach has driven over $1.3 trillion in private broadband investment and allowed the Internet to flourish.”
— Berin Szoka, President, TechFreedom
 
“Senator Cruz has been a vocal opponent of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which passed the U.S. Senate in May of 2013. The legislation, if passed, would create a dizzying maze of new sales tax mandates for hundreds of thousands of tech-enabled small businesses across the country. In addition, it would give unprecedented authority to state tax enforcement agents and allow them to cross borders and enforce their laws on businesses located in other states. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has announced his intention to try and move the Marketplace Fairness Act in the final weeks of Congress. However, Senator Cruz, along with a number of his colleagues in the House and Senate, have expressed their concern and opposition.”
— eBay

“The Internet tax is taxation without representation and Sen. Cruz is right to say no net tax now, no net tax ever.”
— Fred L. Smith, Jr., Founder and Director, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Director, CEI’s Center for Advancing Capitalism
 
“Kudos to Senator Cruz for standing up for consumers and small businessmen and women across the country. The Internet Tax would be a nightmare for thousands of small business and Internet entrepreneurs. Small businesses should be able to spend their time creating and selling products, not complying with ever-larger mountains of paperwork. The ban on new Internet taxes signed into law by President Bill Clinton was good policy. Let’s make it permanent.”
— Amy Ridenour, Chairman, The National Center for Public Policy Research
 
“Senator Cruz is right on target in warning that the Internet regulations President Obama seeks would destroy innovation and harm consumers.  The FCC should officially foreclose the draconian option of reclassifying the Internet under Depression-era monopoly telephone rules by closing the Title II docket once and for all. Senator Cruz recognizes the dangers of turning back the clock on Internet freedom; it's time for the Administration to do the same.”
— Pete Sepp, President, National Taxpayers Union
 
“The Internet we’ve all grown to rely on, and it has been especially helpful to working moms like me, has come about in the absence of excessive government regulation.  Sen. Cruz is right to be wary of the Internet power grab the White House has proposed, especially in the wake of the IRS and NSA scandals.”
— Sabrina Schaffer, Executive Director, Independent Women’s Forum
 
"President Obama has proposed shattering a two-decade bipartisan consensus by reducing the Internet from a free-market success to a tightly-regulated, heavily-taxed public utility.  Senator Ted Cruz is leading the fight to stop this outrageous power grab and on behalf of over 800,000 American Commitment activists who urged the FCC to reject the president's proposal in the most recent comment period, we enthusiastically support his efforts."
— Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment
 
“Senator Cruz’s much needed leadership to stop President Obama's Internet Giveaway is a game changer, elevating the fight to maintain First Amendment protections over the Internet to the national stage.”
— Rick Manning, Americans for Limited Government
 
Sen. Cruz promoted these ideas in an op-ed published in The Washington Post, a speech at Austin’s Capital Factory, and in a YouTube video:

###