Should the federal government really be putting the Packers on TV? (Take 2)

Great news! The federal government has solved all the problems facing the United States and can now devote time and effort to putting the Green Bay Packers on TV.

As the Star Tribune reports,

It’s a nightmare that happens a few Sundays each year: Packers fans living on the edge of Vikings territory can’t watch their beloved team on cable or satellite if Green Bay is playing at the same time as Minnesota.

That could change, if U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin gets her way.

The Wisconsin Democrat on Tuesday reintroduced her Go Pack Go Act, a measure that would require cable and satellite companies to give Wisconsin subscribers access to networks in one of the state’s media markets.

Yes, that feeling might be déjà vu. Senator Baldwin brought this legislation before Congress last year.  As I wrote then,

Of course, the federal government has grown far beyond the scope the Founding Fathers intended for it. It now does all sorts of things for which it has, at best, only a spurious authority granted to it in the Constitution. In some cases, there is no basis at all. But Sen. Baldwin’s attempt to use federal government power to force TV companies to broadcast Aaron Rodgers might be the most egregious abuse of federal power yet.

That said, if they want to show something other than that Kirk Cousins throw into the end zone, I won’t complain.

John Phelan is an economist at the Center of the American Experiment.