Housing Bill, XM-Sirius Merger, and Energy Conservation
The Senate passes a housing bill that includes a new mandatory fingerprint registry.
FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein signals he may cast his deciding vote to approve the merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio companies.
President Bush addresses the role of energy conservation in confronting high oil and gas prices.
1. CONGRESS
The Senate passes a housing bill that includes a new mandatory fingerprint registry.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau on why members of the House of Representatives should reject the proposal:
“…there is no reason why the House must include the Senate’s fingerprint mandate in its bill. Even in a crisis, the burden should not be on privacy advocates defending the liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights to explain why a privacy-invading measure shouldn’t be enacted. Rather, proponents of the measure should bear the burden of explaining why the current crisis justifies something that infringes on their liberties.”
2. BUSINESS
FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein signals he may cast his deciding vote to approve the merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio companies.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Vice President for Policy Wayne Crews on who is opposing the merger:
“Some merger opponents are the usual anti-capitalist, anti-corporate advocates who see big business as an almost personal affront and regard the market as a zero-sum game. Our society is capitalist and corporate enough for them to enjoy the leisure of complaining, so they do. Meanwhile, competitors — in this case, traditional broadcast radio — lobby strongly against mergers. Competitor opposition is usually a given; it’s really the foundation and lifeblood of today’s entire misguided antitrust enterprise. Think about it: Competitors would cheer an inefficient merger, since that would keep them from having to reduce their own prices or improve their offerings. The mergers that competitors try to block are the efficient ones that benefit consumers.”
3. ENERGY
President Bush addresses the role of energy conservation in confronting high oil and gas prices.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Fellow Steven Milloy on why conservation alone is not the answer to high prices:
“First, if the greens won’t let us use our oil now, why would they in the future? Won’t they always tell people to conserve or to wait for some fantasy alternative fuel or magical car battery? Next, future generations are very likely to have improved energy technologies that are less or not at all dependent on oil. Finally, if you think conservation will lead to less oil being used worldwide, think again. China, India and other rapidly developing countries plan to use all the oil they can get. If we don’t buy Canadian tar sands oil, India will buy it to fuel their $2,500 Tata cars.”