Success! How Progressives Stalled the Deregulation Agenda of Greedy Telecoms and ALEC

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http://www.alternet.org/story/155536/success%21_how_progressives_stalled_the_deregulation_agenda_of_greedy_telecoms_and_alec/

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Fighting bills backed by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has been, at times, like a giant game of whack-a-mole.

The entire strategy of the corporate front group is to push its “model” legislation in as many states as possible at once, feeding its member legislators—mostly Republicans, but some Democrats as well--ready-made bills that were written (for a fee) with the input of the country's biggest corporations.

After the controversy around Florida's “Stand Your Ground” law and the shooting of Trayvon Martin, ALEC said it was backing off such bills to focus on “business-friendly” legislation, but its business-friendly work does plenty of damage too. ALEC pushes deregulation, union-busting, privatization, and tax loopholes for big businesses, allowing corporations like AT&T, Koch Industries, and Verizon to essentially write the laws that regulate them.

ALEC-backed telecommunications deregulation bills hit New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut recently, in a one-two-three punch combination designed as a quick knockout blow that consumers and workers would be powerless to fight. But a coalition, including the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the Working Families party, and the AARP, managed to stop the bills, which would've resulted in cost hikes, lost jobs, and service cut-offs for “less profitable” customers—disproportionately senior, rural, or low-income customers who use basic phone service.

“We're up against quite literally armies of lobbyists from the phone companies,” Matt Wood, a policy expert with Free Press, told AlterNet. “That's the thing about ALEC and their approach, they can push things in so many different states at once, if not with no coverage, certainly with less coverage on the national level.”

[BlueToTheBone]

1. I'm grateful to the people who worked to stop this.

We all benefit from their efforts