15 Democrats in the House have sent a letter to President Obama urging the administration to find some way to make the proposed Big Acquisition go through.
The group is led by Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) who wrote, in part,
The road to economic recovery is long, but there is an opportunity before us to immediately create jobs and spur infrastructure investments and technological innovations that will create jobs for years to come. By settling the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA we can put thousands of Americans back to work and promote economic development across the country. I urge the President to strongly consider the vast benefits this merger will have on job creation and the economy and quickly resolve any concerns the Administration may have with the proposal.
Specifically, they’re calling for Obama to direct the Justice Department to settle the case.
In other words, let AT&T win.
This letter was naturally met by strong opposition from Sprint, which stands to lose big if the deal goes through.
It really all comes down to a jobs argument on both sides, at least lately because jobs are such a huge deal. The pro-AT&T crowd trumpets the company’s argument that the deal would create a bunch of jobs on a new better network and AT&T’s promise to bring call center jobs back to the US. The other side says there’s no evidence to support that claim and a bunch of T-Mobile jobs will be eliminated in the process, plus the deal would stifle competition and prevent other companies/jobs from entering the arena.
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