Douglas Alexander: “I am perfectly willing and prepared to vote for a short-term ban on State and local taxation of pure Internet access…”

“I am perfectly willing and prepared to vote for a short-term ban on State and local taxation of pure Internet access, and I have been ready to do that since December. So I am for that. I can step over here and take my purist position and give you a long argument on why we don't need to do that and make that kind of subsidy, but I know there are 100 Members here and we all have to pitch in. I am ready to do that. All we have to fix in the McCain proposal is the definition, which the Senator has just mentioned. We have to make clear, in my view, that nothing in this bill should preclude State and local governments from taxing telephone services, including telephone calls made over the Internet. That is two. The short term is three. I prefer 2 years, not 4 years. The fourth item is the grandfather clause, which ought to be easy to fix. They ought to end at the same time the moratorium ends.”