Cruz's 'Obamacare for Internet' remark draws torrent of criticism.

• Author: Tilove, Jonathan
• Position: News

Byline: Jonathan Tilove

AUSTIN, Texas -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's description this week of net neutrality as ''Obamacare for the Internet'' has sharpened the partisan divide on a complicated issue and provoked a torrent of criticism from techies across the ideological spectrum.

''As a Republican, I'm sorry to tell you, but you're awfully wrong. Every geek out there will tell you that,'' Jay Ramos commented on Cruz's Facebook post, in which the Texas GOP senator wrote that ''the biggest regulatory threat to the Internet is net neutrality. ... The Internet should not operate at the speed of government.''

Wrong, responded Ramos, who was among the deluge of commenters taking Cruz to task on the issue: ''Net neutrality is necessary so that big pocketed companies don't pay their way into having their content prioritized over smaller start-ups or ISP's (Internet service providers) charging content companies to stay in the fast lane, basically blackmail, affecting consumers.''

Joshua Baer, founder of Austin's Capital Factory, an incubator for tech startups, said he thought most colleagues in the tech community are ''pro-net neutrality,'' and that Cruz's likening it to the Affordable Care Act is ill-conceived.

On Monday, Obama, in the name of net neutrality, called for the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband so that it is...