Internet Tax Moratorium Over?

clawson writes "Looks like Congress just can't resist it anymore. This story, mentioned in The Naked PC e-zine, is in ComputerWorld. Yeah, right, the tax will go to fund teacher salaries. This is pretty lame when the current congressional mindset is pretty much doing what it can to ensure that there aren't TOO many smart people in the future, but lots of semi-literate, idiotic consumeroids."

Comments

Here is the text of the bill

[konstant]

Introduced by Sen. Hollings from South Carolina and currently before the Finance Committee:

S.1433 Sales Tax Safety Net and Teacher Funding Act

Note that this is only a bill, and has not passed committee. There is nothing at this point to distinguish this bill from any of the other hundreds of proposals submitted by "our" representatives every year. No need to panic just yet, unless you are from South Carolina. Here is the contact info for Senator Hollings:

Ernest "Fritz" Hollings

And here is the webpage for the Finance Committee so you can see whether your senator might be influential in this process. If so, please contact him or her!

Senate Committee on Finance

Check your constitution, Boys!

[HipNerd]

You do not have a Constitutional right to freedom from taxation. Right to free speech? Check. Protection from unreasonable searches? Check. Right to not be taxed? Not in there.

We need taxes. Sad but true. Nobody likes them, and few people like the government. But taxes are necessary. Especially sales taxes, which help fund local and state governments.

Local governments depend on sales taxes for 36 percent of their annual budget. They use that money to do practical, everyday things like:

* Pay for teachers salaries
* Put police on the roads
* Or, for those who hate the police, they put firemen on the roads.
* Hey, let's be honest, they build the roads and other necessary infrastructure with that money
* Put on your local Peach Cobbler festival

When people talk about government excesses and waste, they are seldom talking about local governments, they are talking about the Feds. It's okay to hate the federal government. That's almost the national pastime.

I would like to add that the taxation bill discussed here is no a good idea. It is poorly thought out.

The money would be collected by the federal government and used to to fund grants for teacher salaries exclusively. What if you need money for road improvements or more police? You're out of luck.

Also, I think that it is too early to tax the net. While we will need to do it eventually, e-commerce is not a large enough piece of the retail pie to make taxing it necessary yet. I'd vote to let it grow more before we take the drastic step of implementing taxes.

Just my $.02.

HipNerd