Those words are contained in virtually every oath taken by a public office holder in the United States. This phrase actually applies to protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States. But since this is a government of, by and for the People, it really means us. The New York Times reported today that 'In the last four years, the F.C.C. has taken nine anti-cramming enforcement actions against companies and proposed more than $33 million in fines. That is much less than 1 percent of the amount consumers may have lost to cramming charges in the same period. The article is written in the context of T-Mobile's alleged abuses in allowing third parties to 'cram' charges into their customers mobile phone bills. Notwithstanding that T-Mobile is the rock star of today's mobile communications industry, having broken Verizon's and AT&T's antiquated business model, they should have been more vigilant. The real culprit here, however, is the FCC. We are all for a strong free market capitalist system, but government has a responsibility to 'protect and defend' its citizens against enemies, foreign or domestic. Based on the New York Times' assessment, it sounds like there is another three billion dollars of low hanging fruit out there for them to enforce and collect on. And if that is the size of the un assessed fines, just imagine the size of the undisciplined offenses. And that's our gripe.
"Protect and Defend"
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