AT&T has donated more to campaign contributions than any company since 1989, so it's none too surprising to see 15 members of both parties in Congress send the Obama Administration a letter insisting the DOJ should stop blocking the AT&T T-Mobile merger. Representatives like Heath Shuler (D-NC), who has seen roughly $25,000 in AT&T cash donations over the course of his political career, was happy to parrot AT&T's merger benefit claims (jobs, network expansion, lower prices, more competition), apparently unbothered that nearly all of those claims have been thoroughly debunked by rudimentary fact checking.

From the letter:Except again (because this point isn't getting through, apparently) history and AT&T's own data (both leaked and statements to investors) show that the T-Mobile deal will eliminate far more jobs than it creates, and it will reduce the overall amount of capital infrastructure investment through the elimination of T-Mobile. It's indisputable that AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile is only good for AT&T through the erosion of competition. Yet the "debate" on this front continues as AT&T tries to get the DOJ to back away from their blockade -- by throwing cash around and repeating themselves.

There will of course likely be a settlement, but it's not clear if any conditions could aid the anti-competitive problems created by this deal. The DOJ and FCC likely want to approve this deal, they simply need to sell the public and press on it. What we'll likely see is a dog and pony show involving AT&T being "forced" to divest a small number of markets they likely weren't interested in anyway. You'll also likely see some additional network-neutrality-esque conditions that look good on paper, but don't force AT&T to do anything they weren't planning to do voluntarily.