“in order to accomplish his plan, the government must have the ability to read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse.”

Yeah, I think he sunk his chances with the following statment:

“Americans will have to trust the government not to abuse the authority it must have in order to protect our networks, and yet, historically the government has not proved worthy of that trust.”

So, remind me, why am I supposed to give you this power again?