Eric Massa started today's press conference quoting from Time-Warner's SEC filings. Pointing out that Time-Warner "spent 11% less [on providing Internet] in 2008 and increased their profits by $300 million", Massa characterized their rate increase as "runaway, unregulated corporate greed." He added, "when you look at their filings, the naked, bald falseness of their claims is exposed."
Massa said he was "not elected to support corporate greed" and called the increase "a Time-Warner tax that will destroy the 21st Century economy." He listed a group of constituents, including doctors and farmers, who will be "laid waste" by the increase. He called it a "national issue of generational consequence".
One reporter asked Massa what his proposed legislation would accomplish. Massa said it would increase competition and regulate monopolies. "The tool at the federal level is to understand what the Interstate Commerce Act brings to the table. Businesses that cross state borders are subject to federal regulation."
Time-Warner's ill-conceived, outrageous plan to tax American consumers cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged. I plan to take a lead [...] and will be joined by an army of activists, to bring light to a fundamentally unfair and ill-conceived assault on the American consumer.