Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) said the Internet is not broken, but the government must step in immediately and reclassify it as a utility.

CNN's Candy Crowley asked the senator, "What is it that's broken?" "Nothing," he replied. Crowley returned, "So if nothing's broken, why is the government wanting to fix it?"

Franken warned that the Internet will essentially break if the current FCC allows companies to pay for so-called fast lanes that would allow certain content to travel at different speeds over others to end users. The government, he says, wants to keep the Net neutral, as it always has been. In other words, content from CNN, The New York Times, Netflix, etc., will travel at the same rates as a small blog in middle America. "We want to keep it that way," Franken said.

The senator argued his point using the success of YouTube as an example. Before YouTube, Franken explained, was Google video -- an inferior way to watch videos. So three guys living above a pizzeria created a product that people liked better. Once Google took notice, they bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. Franken warned that this type of innovation would be squelched if content is not treated neutrally.

Crowley asked what impact Net neutrality would have on Internet service providers, such as Comcast or AT&T, and whether it would stop them from pursuing innovations. "All this stops them from doing is making a whole bunch of extra money," Franken said, "but this is not going to stop them from wiring the country."

Since President Obama's announcement last week urging the FCC to accept his Net neutrality plan, supporters and critics alike brought their arguments. The one critic garnering the most attention was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. He likened Net neutrality to "Obamacare for the Internet" and said, "Government-regulated utilities invariably destroy innovation and freedom." Franken disagreed:

He has it completely wrong. He just doesn't understand what this issue is. We've had Net neutrality the entire history of the Internet. So when he says this is the Obamacare -- Obamacare was a government program that fixed something, that changed things. This is about reclassifying something so it stays the same. This would keep things exactly the same as they've been. And the pricing happens by the value of something.