Ted Cruz says Net Neutrality is the "Obamacare" of the Internet.

Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz Tweeted that President Obama's call for the FCC to put into place "Net Neutrality" protection, is "the Obamacare of the Internet".

I'm sure that Senator Cruz, a well-known partisan who many believe will run for president himself in 2016, meant that as the worst of insults. But let's dissect that statement rationally. First we must define terms.

What is Net Neutrality? It is defined as the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.

While the term "net neutrality" was coined by a Columbia University professor named Tim Wu, back in 2003, in reality it is how the Internet has always functioned since its inception, and continues to function to this day. It is not something Obama is trying to add to the Internet, but rather a status quo he aims to defend from destruction. Most large telecommunications companies are also Internet service providers. They would love to have laws changed to eliminate net neutrality and allow them dictate speed and tier pricing and access to the Internet, even though they don't actually own the Internet. The Internet is a public resource, built and maintained by taxpayers.

Is it like "Obamacare"? The Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act of 2010 - aka "Obamacare" - is complex law that seeks to allow greater access to affordable health insurance, in part by removing corporate barriers imposed by insurance companies related to pre-existing conditions and other factors.

So, if one were to find a parallel, it would be that the purpose of both the ACA and net neutrality is to prevent huge corporations from limiting access to an important service which they don't even own, and charging exorbitant and erratic rates for that access, in a way that overwhelmingly benefits large corporations over small businesses and individual citizens.  So the good Senator may be onto something, here.

The biggest difference is that the ACA sought to break down existing barriers in the status quo by creating new laws, while net neutrality seeks to protect existing liberties from new barriers imposed by more laws wanted by the big telecom corporations.

What's the harm of letting the telecom companies have their way, and why does Senator Ted Cruz feel compelled to get involved?

The greatest concern from allowing the dismantling of net neutrality is the ability of large corporations to stifle and impede entrepreneurs, start-up companies and innovators, who are the backbone of the US economy, but are often seen as a threat by huge corporations. If the government fails to protect net neutrality, the real losers would be small businesses and American ingenuity. Most Internet service providers operate as monopolies or near monopolies in most markets. They stifle the free market and eliminating net neutrality will only exacerbate that problem. They, in fact do function as a utility, but without any of the market controls that utilities require so they don't take unfair advantage of consumers and other businesses.

As for Senator Cruz, if you go to opensecrets.org, and look at his largest campaign donors, you'll find names like Martin Lewis LLP of Philadelphia, and Sullivan and Cromwell LLP of New York - both huge law and lobbying firms who have among their clients several giant telecommunications companies, including many based outside the US. So Senator Cruz owes a large debt to these companies. And what Senator Cruz wants to do to the existing freedoms on the Internet would allow large telecoms, including those in China, France and elsewhere, to dictate the speed and access of the Internet for US small businesses. As with all things in politics - follow the money.

I don't know about you, but I'm not OK with allowing huge, international corporations the power to put American small businesses and innovators at a competitive disadvantage. But that's exactly what will happen if Senator Cruz gets his way.

Tip o' the cap to Dan Helfond for this article.
Six Reasons Real Conservatives Should Reject The GOP And Support Net Neutrality