Political Quotes

“Mr. President I rise in opposition to the amendment being offered to grandfather existing taxes on Internet services. This amendment undermines the fundamental integrity of the underlying bill because all state and local taxing jurisdictions would not be under the exact same moratorium. It rewards those states and municipalities that raced to set up discriminatory taxes on Internet services and places them in a better position to raise revenue than those states that have chosen not to act. More importantly, it sets the precedent that some states, but not all states, can levy taxes that harm interstate commerce. This amendment makes the Internet Tax Moratorium a piece-meal moratorium, not a real moratorium. I ask my colleagues to consider why we are considering this Internet tax moratorium. As all of us recognize, the Internet is a massive global network that spans not only every state in the Union, but international borders. As the Commerce committee found, Internet access services are inherently a matter of interstate and foreign commerce within the jurisdiction of the United States Congress. In fact, it has been estimated that if the Congress does not make a policy decision regarding taxation of Internet services, more than 30,000 separate taxing jurisdictions within the United States could establish their own taxes on Internet transactions.”