Politicians weigh renewal of Net access tax ban

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"Taxing... thingy?"

This reminds me of a classic Monty Python sketch - the British cabinet is meeting, wracking their brains for ways to get more money into the government till. Then one of them has a brainwave -
"You know, we already tax most of the things we do for pleasure... drinking, smoking... what if we taxed... you know, thingy?"

"Thingy?"

"Yes, you know, thingy."

"I'm afraid I don't. Could you please be more explicit?"

" You know - thingy!

"Poo- poos? "

"No! - Thingy!" (the guy makes the universal symbol for the horizontal cha-cha)

"OH! That's a relief! Excuse me!" (another cabinet member jumps up and runs off to the washroom)

Eric Idle looks up brightly and says "Well, it'll sure make chartered accountancy more interesting!"

My point? The House is proposing that we tax the interchange of information. This isn't sales tax or any other sort of economic activity we're talking about here - it's information interchange!

There is quite literally nothing happening of economic import here - just access to the Internet, an entity that for the past twenty years has largely been funded by the private sector.

I oppose a tax on Internet access because it creates an insidious and perilous precedent - taxation of activity which the government neither facilitates nor protects (unless the House plans to spend some of that Internet tax money taking care of the spam and telemarketing problems - but sure, that'll work the same way that the tobacco settlement was used to help out with smokers' medical bills.... ).

I have no problem with taxes that pay for what the government actually lays out to protect or facilitate the activity being taxed.

You know, like a $1-2/gallon increase in gasoline taxes to make it clear to John Q. Idiot, Voter what relying on imported oil is costing us in increased defense expenditures for the War in Southwest Asia, maintenance of a Strategic Petroleum Stockpile, sweetheart arms deals to tyrant regimes who kill people for converting away from Islam, and generally doing things that would make the Founding Fathers puke hard.

Nooooo... we're going to tax an activity that costs the government nothing, requires no input from the government, and actually has thrived in the absence of governmental regulation.

I'll take spam and an untaxed Internet, thanks very much. Anyone who wants to write out checks to the Federal Government to pay for what they're not getting is more than welcome to do so. Just leave me and my Internet account the hell alone.

Posted by: jlafitte   Posted on: 05/23/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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