This week, something of an intra-GOP debate has broken out as free-market, limited government Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul have spoken out against GOP support for this Democratic, big-government policy approach. “These [antitrust] proposals to ostensibly cut the tech giants down to size would, instead, perpetuate the dominant position of these companies and deprive consumers of the technological innovation that only free-market competition can provide,” Paul said . “Rather than pursue even stronger antitrust laws, Congress should allow the free market to thrive where consumers, not the government, decide how big a company should be.”
Free-market Republicans like Paul are right on this one. Big-government populists like Hawley are wrong.
A great example of why these swampy, big-government policies are so misguided is Klobuchar and Hawley’s “American Innovation and Choice Online Act.” This bill is ostensibly meant to crack down on big companies like Amazon that are said to be using their market power to promote themselves and squash competitors. It acts by “prohibiting dominant platforms from abusing their gatekeeper power by favoring their own products or services, disadvantaging rivals, or discriminating among businesses that use their platforms in a manner that would materially harm competition on the platform.”
All the populist bravado aside, what this legislation would actually do is use the federal government to ruin amazing services people enjoy, such as Amazon Basics and Amazon Prime.
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