Google is learning how to play the Washington D.C. game in a big
way. This means it will likely find a way to manipulate regulatory
schemes to the disadvantage of taxpayers and consumers.
Federal records show that Google employees donated just over
$800,000 to President Obama’s election campaign. Google has
also boosted its lobbying efforts. The company spent over $5
million in lobbying fees last year, according the Center for
Responsive Politics (CRP). 2011 donations include $90,000 to the
Podesta Group, which is run by Tony Podesta, a prominent Democratic
operative. Google has also been aligned with the far left group
Moveon.org, blogger Michelle Malkin
has noted. Executive Director Eric Schmidt campaigned with
Obama in the final weeks of the 2008 campaign and continues to
speak in favor of new government spending.
Given the company’s overall political bent, it should not come
as a surprise to find that it has reversed itself on potential
policy changes that would allow for greater government control of
the Internet. In
a joint statement with Verizon, Google announced that it did
not view open wireless rules has being necessary and that were now
willing to accept “Net Neutrality” in some form. Seton Motley,
editor-in-chief of
StopNetRegulation.org, has called for bipartisan legislation
that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
reclassifications that could silence political expression. He
should not expect any help from Google in this area.
There is certainly an element of self-preservation at work here.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued subpoenas to Google,
which could potentially open the way to anti-trust investigations.
Therefore, it may feel inclined to do the bidding of Team Obama.
During an appearance on ABC-TV’s “This Week” in September, Schmidt
called for additional stimulus money and government spending to
revive the economy. Downsizing government and balancing the budget
can wait, he told program hosts.
“The current strategy is ludicrious,” he said. “You have a
situation where the private sector sees essentially no growth in
demand. The classic solution is to have the government step in and,
with short-term initiatives, help stimulate that demand. If they do
it right, they’ll invest in income and growth producing things like
highways and bridges and schools, new opportunities for the private
sector to go then build businesses.”
Google also appears to have a hand in promoting the federal
health care bill. As Jeffrey Anderson
reports over at the Weekly Standard, type Obamacare in
the search engine and up pops the administration’s health.gov site;
not exactly a detached, disinterested source of information.
After earning its reputation as innovative, dynamic
forward-looking company of the future, Google now seems determined
to offer up retrograde economic ideas that have been discredited
throughout history.
Google is cultivating the right friends in government, and
burnishing its left wing credentials, in an effort to avoid having
to operate within the parameters of the burdensome, over-regulated
world the Obama administration has constructed for their
competitors (and average Americans) over the past few years.
