Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I have been looking for a time when the floor was open to refute some of the comments…”

“I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I have been looking for a time when the floor was open to refute some of the comments and concerns raised earlier on the Senate floor. I want to start by taking on a comment that was made by the Senator from Minnesota, Mr. Franken, who said YouTube started above a pizzeria in 2005 and sold for $1.6 billion 2 years later to Google, and that wouldn't have been possible without net neutrality. Well, Mr. President, I must point out that we didn't have net neutrality in 2005. We haven't had Federal regulation of the Internet in this country such as we have seen during this last year put forward by this administration. In fact, YouTube and Google were both created in a marketplace without net neutrality regulations. Other online successes--Facebook, Hulu, Twitter, and new devices such as the Apple iPhone and Amazon Kindle--all happened without net neutrality regulations. These are innovations that have changed communication patterns not only in our country but around the world as well. So we have had these innovations without the heavy hand of government. It is very interesting to hear the debate on the Senate floor because we seem to hear that net neutrality is something that will keep the Internet open. The opposite is true. It is beginning to put the clamps on the successes that we have had by having an open Internet.…”