Every time I timidly believe our government officials, people who have been entrusted to run our nation, to be respectable human beings, an event inevitably occurs that makes me facepalm.

Recently the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by a 3-2 vote repealed net neutrality. This was yet another facepalm moment. The effort to repeal was spearheaded by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the man who claims “internet freedom” is actually constricting it. The FCC, in a press release following the decision, stated that Pai’s plan “to restore Internet Freedom by repealing Obama-era Internet regulations will benefit all Americans.” This is nonsensical.

Net neutrality ensures every service you access on the internet – gaming, HD streaming, web browsing – will receive the same internet speed from an Internet service provider. Equal speeds for all websites. However, with the repeal instituted by the FCC, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can now charge their customers for the speed on an online service in addition to the base price of the internet package. If you want to watch Netflix without buffering, you may now have to pay extra for it.

That’s right, it won’t be long until people are deciding whether or not to spend an extra five or ten bucks for the “turbo pack” for higher speeds. The ISPs will be able to make more profit while customers are paying more for the speeds they originally had. That’s quite some “internet freedom.”

While the repeal is irrefutably bad, how it even came about is even more concerning. Mr. Pai used to work as a lawyer for Verizon before he was appointed by the President to head the FCC. His background immediately calls into question whether he actually believes the repeal is good for consumers and business, or if he is just furthering the Verizon agenda.

The most distressing aspect of the state of net neutrality is the fact it has become a partisan issue even though the repeal is terrible for everyone using the internet. Pai, in his video titled “7 Things You Can Still Do on the Internet After Net Neutrality,” specifically categorized net neutrality as from the “Obama-era” as if that gave him reason to repeal. Our politicians need to realize the effect of the law, not who created it. Partisanship is not good politics and it certainly is not good for the internet.