CISPA, or the Cybersecurity Intelligence Sharing And Protection Act,
passed the House yesterday. The bill is full of
problematic intrusions into
individual privacy and online liberty, and yet those members of the House who associate themselves with limited government
were largely responsible for its passage.
“The complete
roll call shows 206 Republicans voting for the bill, 28 against,”
writes reason’s Tim Cavanaugh. “Democrats went 42 to 140 in the opposite direction.”
Of these Republicans, “47 of the 66 members of the
House Tea Party Caucus” also supported the bill,
notes Patrick Cahalan.
“For those tricky with the math,” Cahalan continues, “this means 88% of the overall GOP members (casting a vote) voted yea, 23% of the Dems (casting a vote) voted yea, and 71% of the Tea Party (casting a vote) voted yea (Paul and Pence didn’t cast a vote).”
Worse still, the bill underwent
some last minute changes, which may have made CISPA even worse than in previous iterations.
