Well, in this case what we are seeing is the growth of a regulatory state that exists mainly to help select firms generate profit. This is known as "regulatory

Well, in this case what we are seeing is the growth of a regulatory state that exists mainly to help select firms generate profit. This is known as "regulatory capture" and infrastructure services that the government can justify regulating for any reason are vulnerable to it. I'd say that you are correct in the broader observation that both parties strongly favor big government that helps their pet industries avoid competition. And along similar lines, both parties are perfectly happy with mobile carrier consolidation, which is too bad, because the poor spend disproportionately on mobile services and are most likely to be victimized by misleading plans or deceptive sales tactics (which are extremely common).