The FCC is expected to approve a net neutrality plan this week. The proposed rules are a "sad example of unreasoned decision-making," Powell, who served under President George W. Bush and is now president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, told CNBC.
"Watching the president of the United States direct the FCC to adopt a very specific regulatory result, I think . . . was shocking and put the commission in an untenable position."
In November, Obama directed the FCC to establish the "strongest possible rules" to ensure net neutrality.
Powell hopes Congress will pick up the ball. "This issue is ripe for Congress to fix," he said.
"When Congress realizes the order goes far beyond protecting net neutrality . . . and in fact introduces a new regulatory regime for the Internet, there may be growing interest in trying to reach a conventional solution."
Other conservatives criticize Obama for excessive regulation across the board.
Steve Cortes, founder of Veracruz research firm, told Newsmax TV that over-regulation is hurting the middle class. "Regulation and taxation out of Washington are crushing entrepreneurship. . . . We've had more businesses closing than opening."
Most middle class people work their way up the income ladder through entrepreneurship, he said. "It's the American way of entrepreneurial capitalism that has become much more difficult with increasingly meddlesome regulation and extremely high taxation."
Star CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow also is concerned about regulation. "To maximize growth, jobs, opportunity, and upward mobility, the U.S. must recapture the first principles of economic growth that were so successful in the 1960s, '80s, and '90s," he writes on Newsmax Finance.
"Namely, pro-growth policies should seek a low-rate, broad-based flat tax, limited government spending, the lightest possible economic regulations, sound money, and free trade."
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