Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Elizabeth Warren blasts Comcast, calls for stronger anti-trust enforcement

Rss@dailykos.com (joan Mccarter) · Wednesday, June 29, 2016, 10:29 pm

If you thought Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren might moderate her positions, might fight a little less vocally for her key issues since she's under a big spotlight as a potential VP nominee? Then you haven't been paying attention to Elizabeth Warren. Here's her latest big policy speech.

"Last year was Comcast's best year in nearly a decade," the Massachusetts Democrat said in prepared remarks for a speech. "But while big telecom giants have been consuming each other, consumers have been left out in the cold—facing little or no choice in service providers and paying through the nose for cable and internet service."

Warren's speech at a forum on monopolies came as part of her advocacy for greater enforcement of antitrust laws as American consumers pay higher prices for cable and Internet services than those elsewhere.  […]

"Strong executive leadership could revive antitrust enforcement in this country and begin, once again, to fight back against dominant market power and overwhelming political power," Warren said in the Capitol Visitor Center. "But we need something else too — and that’s a revival of the movement that created the antitrust laws in the first place."

Warren didn't save all her fire for Comcast. Apple and Google, the big airlines, and Wal-Mart are on her list as well. She's calling on federal regulators, the Justice Department, and the Federal Trade Commission to be much tougher in evaluating, approving—or blocking—big corporate mergers and acquisitions. Right now, she says, companies are openly flouting the conditions regulators put on them for approval.

"Even when companies meet conditions," she said, "like selling off some assets, they sometimes just turn around and buy back the same assets they originally sold off. Literally. That actually happens." 

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/YRzH0UXHde0/-Elizabeth-Warren-blasts-Comcast-calls-for-stronger-anti-trust-enforcement

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