This reluctance to accept government funding shows that major ISPs realize that acceptance of stimulus funds puts them squarely under the FCC Network Neutrality principles.   These principles could bleed into the other networks—such as Verizon’s FiOS TV or AT&T’s U-Verse—that these large Internet players own.   Meaning this policy would be the camel’s nose under the tent.

Putting aside whether this is good for the public or not, I can’t really blame them.  They need neither the money nor the headache that the stimulus funds carry with them.

Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He’s been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with “adverse” consequences if its chairman persists. That’s politics talking, not economics.

This would not be a good idea for the Obama team.  Give the bank credit for going to the media on this.