Ohio bill would deregulate phone service (sigh)

Yes, I know. The header for this entry - "Ohio bill would deregulate phone service" - is just restating an existing condition. It's a bit like if the header said, "Farts to become smelly."

That's because Ohio's so-called regulators are already astonishingly generous to phone and utility companies. It seems that whenever a phone company wants a rate increase, it's rubber-stamped.

In Ohio - as in some other states - there's almost no regulation at all of phone and utilities.

Now right-wing state lawmakers want to deregulate the phone industry even further. A new bill in Ohio would allow phone companies to increase the deposit charged on customers and raise monthly rates by $1.25 each year without even proving that competition exists. It also lets phone companies wait 3 days to repair out-of-service lines, instead of one day. (Phone companies routinely ignore the one-day rule anyway.) And it would reduce eligibility for assistance for low-income households.

Whose idiotic idea was this?

Ohio wants to deregulate phone service even after lawmakers rejected a bill to clamp down on employer discrimination. They think phone companies and other big businesses have a "right" to gouge consumers and fire employees for no reason, but that nobody has a right to be protected from them.

The essence of the modern GOP, folks.