Representative Greg Walden discusses market mechanisms and consumer accountability online during a panel on technology policy.
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Walden: Treating Internet Like Phone Monopolies Will Harm Innovation
“Now you're going to get all the constraints of the old phone monopoly regulatory environment of Washington on top of the internet. Really? I don't think that's going to help on innovation.”
What-if
Walden: Legacy Taxi and Hotel Regulations Would Have Stifled Airbnb and Uber
“If they had to live by all the laws of, like they were a hotel, I mean, that doesn't make any sense, or Lyft, or Uber. Having to, you know, be under the regulatory confines of the old taxi laws. We would never have this competition innovation coming to consume…”
Assertion Partly supported
Walden: AWS-3 spectrum auction defied skeptics, raising $41.9 billion
“We were able to get cleared in what's called AWS three and that spectrum the green eye shade folks in Washington said would never sell government, never clear, and there's no revenue potential. It sold this year for 41.9 billion dollars.”
Insight
Walden: Founders must periodically scan for regulatory threats to their business
“Every once in a while you gotta pop your head up out of your company, and I was in small business for 21 years, the radio business, and so, you know, you're working every day, you're trying to keep the microphones wired and the transmitter running and sell adv…”
Assertion Supported
Walden: House subcommittee forced FDA to clarify if iPad is medical device
“We actually did a hearing on my subcommittee to force the FDA, the regulator in this case, to tell us, is an iPad a medical device?”
Opinion
Walden: Regulatory policy must distinguish life-critical devices from consumer fitness trackers
“Well, I think part of it is, if that device is regulating the beat of my heart, yeah, I want a little more regulation there. But if it's Fred Upton's Fitbit or Jawbone or whatever your fuel. That's not controlling the flow of his insulin or regulating the beat…”