A real Rust Belt revolutionary

Consensus is scarce, but almost everyone agrees with this: Thegovernment is dysfunctional and the Internet is splendid.

But last month, the Democratic-controlled Federal CommunicationsCommission, on a partisan 3-2 vote, did what a federal court says ithas no power to do: It decided to regulate the Internet in the nameof "net neutrality." The next morning, a man who can discipline theFCC said: Well, we'll just see about that. "We are going to be a dogto the Frisbee on this issue."

Rep. Fred Upton, 57, a Republican from southwestern Michigan, isnow chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He notesthat last summer the Progressive Change Campaign Committee got 95Democratic congressional candidates to pledge support for federalregulation of the Internet. In November, all 95 lost. Upton will tryto stymie the FCC's impertinence by using the Congressional ReviewAct, under which a measure to reverse a regulation gets expeditedconsideration and cannot be filibustered in the Senate.

The capacious jurisdiction of Upton's committee will allow him,if he so desires, to issue the biblical command "Let there be light"by pushing repeal of the 2007 law that, in 2014, effectively banssales of incandescent light bulbs. This law, which creates a captivemarket for those annoying, twisty, flickering fluorescent bulbs, isprotectionism disguised as environmentalism: It is corporate welfarefor U.S. bulb makers afraid of competition from importedincandescents.

But Upton has a bigger repeal in mind. He thinks enough Democratswill join all 242 House Republicans in voting to repeal Obamacare,and that repeal will come within 25 or so votes of the 290 necessaryto override a presidential veto. This will intensify pressure onother Democratic members - imagine their town hall meetings - whocould provide the veto-proof margin.

Upton thinks opposition to Obamacare is intensifying as peoplerealize the reality behind Barack Obama's slippery promise that ifyou like your present health care plan, you can keep it. The new lawwill not directly take it away, but its requirement that businesseseither provide expensive government-approved insurance or pay a fineis designed to prompt businesses to drop their insurance, pay thefine and dump employees into Medicaid. Upton favors deregulatingMedicaid by giving governors block grants and latitude: "Cut thestrings and let the states figure it out."

He majored in journalism at the University of Michigan and wassports editor of the student newspaper, thinking he might eventuallycover the Chicago Cubs. He avoided that misery by coming toWashington in 1977 to work for the freshman congressman from hisdistrict, David Stockman, who in 1981 took Upton with him to theWhite House when he became President Ronald Reagan's budgetdirector.

Upton was elected in 1986 and has begun his 13th term. His statehas more than its share of problems: The automobile industry is ashadow of its former self, the unemployment rate is 12.4 percent, 68municipalities are on the state's fiscal watch list (38 are ratedworse than Hamtramck, which is seeking permission to file forbankruptcy), the 2010 Census will cost the state a House seat, and,worst of all, Michigan has lost seven consecutive football games toOhio State.

Michigan's power is waxing in Washington, with Upton's booncompanion Dave Camp, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and MeansCommittee. They are part of a Midwestern ascendancy in the House,which also includes Ohio's John Boehner (speaker), Michigan's MikeRogers (chairman of the Intelligence Committee), Wisconsin's PaulRyan (chairman of Budget), Minnesota's John Kline (chairman ofEducation and Labor), and Missouri's Sam Graves (chairman of SmallBusiness).

The Midwest has much to lose from Obama's agenda, particularlyhis animus against coal, which generates 60 percent of the region'selectricity - 90 percent in Ohio and Indiana. Officials of a steeltank manufacturer in Niles, Mich., told Upton that cap-and-tradecarbon regulation would have meant an instant 20 percent increase inelectricity costs, which would have forced the company to operateonly at night in order to take advantage of off-peak rates.

Such mundane matters might be intensely boring to Obamaadministration officials, to whom the private sector is as foreignas Mongolia. But the next presidential election probably will be wonin the Midwest. Soon, House Republicans from there will beginconducting a two-year tutorial on the reasons the region shouldcontinue to recoil from this administration.

Will's e-mail address is georgewill@washpost.com.