A new IBD/TIPP poll shows a majority now characterizing the Obama presidency as a “failure.” The survey shows that even among 25-44 year olds, 59 percent view this presidency negatively. Much of the poll’s results seem to stem from economic issues with three out of four placing the economy at the top of their list. With the ACA dragging down small business wages to the tune of $26.2 billion annually, is it a surprise that people are upset?

Shhh, the new healthcare.gov will begin testing next week. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services emailed insurers requiring “all testers to acknowledge the confidentiality of this process to access the testing environment.” Last year, CMS did not require insurers to agree to confidentiality. 

Within the next month, the U.S. Energy Information Administration will release a report on crude oil prices that could have an effect on future crude export policies. According to EIA Administrator Adam Siemienski, “We are looking very carefully at the relationship between product prices in the U.S. – particularly gasoline – and crude oil prices, trying to understand whether gasoline pricing is more tied into the U.S. crude oil markets or the global crude oil markets.”

Eakinomics: Meanwhile, over at the FCC….

Drink your coffee. This is a bit arcane. But you are reading the Daily Dish via the magic of the Internet, perhaps even on a mobile device with broadband capabilities. It is all endangered. Here’s why. 

A while back (2002) the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) classified cable modem service as an “information service.” This meant it fell under Title I of the Communications Act. It did the same for DSL in 2005 and wireless broadband in 2007.  The FCC said this would be good for innovation, quality, customer choice and prices of services.

Enter the advocates of “net neutrality” who have consistently been rebuffed by the courts in their attempts to dictate the actions of, in particular, Internet service providers (ISPs).  They want the FCC to reclassify ISPs under Title II — that is, as a “common carrier” — which they think could be used to prevent paid prioritization on the Internet. Unfortunately, Title II includes 48 separate sections, more than 100 pages that has spawned perhaps as much as 1,000 regulations that common carriers must follow, supposedly so that they act “in the public interest.”  

Title II was invented to regulate telephone service, something that does only one thing — transmit voice signals — and was easy to regulate in 1934 because there was one long distance company and a single company handled local service in every town. Compare that to the Internet, where there are zillions of providers of a gazillion services. At any point in time, the cumulative burden of Netflix streams, LinkedIn invitations, Facebook posts, web surfing, Tweets, email, movie downloads, phone calls, and other content may threaten the ability of the ISP to handle the volume. It already provides unequal treatment, so the “neutrality” dream is entirely illusory.

And imposing that mountain of public interest regulations will destroy the vitality and innovation that has been the trademark of the Internet culture. People no longer have landlines because the regulatory overreach stripped telephone companies of the ability to innovate and attract customers. 

If you want to continue to read the Dish and, more importantly, be amazed at the new services and technologies, vote Title I. If you prefer your internet services to go the way of Ma Bell, vote Title II.