Trouble getting through to the cable guy? Just wait

Here's a question to ask yourself, especially about the time your cable bill arrives: What do 86 of the 107 in-house Comcast lobbyists have in common?
Answer: they all came out of government. They include a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and several former chiefs of staff to Senate and House Democrats and Republicans.
In 2013, Comcast spent $18.1 million on its lobbying efforts, seventh highest of any corporation or organization, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
So the next question is: why is this important?
The answer: because those men and women are working hard and lavishing millions on Washington decision-makers to make sure that Comcast's $45 billion purchase of Time-Warner, the nation's second biggest cable and high-speed Internet provider, becomes reality. Oh, and the No. 1 cable and Internet provider? Comcast.
In an information/technology age it is disturbing that we are considering concentrating in one giant company this much of such a vital industry. The phrase "too big to fail" leaps to mind. If this acquisition goes through two other phrases are likely to enter the lexicon: "too big to regulate" and "too powerful to punish."
Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, argues bigger will be better. The company will have more money to do more things and make more investments in innovations. That will force rivals to do the same. All this will be oh so good for consumers, company officials and their shills claim.
But how does that square with the reality that most of the content produced by rivals like Netflix and Amazon will flow through Comcast's cable pipelines? How good, really, will that be for the rivals?

And consumers? When was the last time an unregulated monopoly helped consumers?
Ask grain growers in the 1880s Midwest how having service from one railroad helped them.
Make no mistake, it's no accident that more than 80 percent of Comcast's lobbyists come from government. A company hires such people -- at huge salaries -- precisely because they've been insiders. They know which people to buttonhole and where the bodies are buried.
Good for consumers? Good for rivals? Hardly. This deal, like so many mega-company formations in recent years, is good for those making the deal and those allowing the deal to go through -- the politicians and bureaucrats sent to Washington on the shaky vow to look out for Americans and America.
The acquisition will go through because, government officials will eventually declare, there was no legal reason in this rigged game for it to be denied, notwithstanding arguments about safeguarding our democracy and at least the façade of one-man, one-vote.
If as a Comcast or Time-Warner customer you think your incomprehensible bill is too high now, just wait. If you think you have trouble getting a real company person on the phone to answer a question or complaint, just wait. The phone-tree from hell is about to arrive. And those are only the visible parts of what has the real potential for nefarious behavior when the companies are joined.