Political Quotes

“Madam President, this is a photograph of a store in Palatine, IL, called Soccer Plus. Bob Naughtrip opened this store and sold sporting equipment in the suburbs of Chicago. He had a pretty good business going, but then he ran into something called show-rooming. That consists of people walking into a store and saying: I would like to try on a pair of shoes or some equipment. They would find exactly what they wanted, write down all the information, and then say: Thanks, Bob, walk out the door and order it on the Internet, paying for it without paying sales tax on their purchase. So every time Bob tried to sell something and collect the sales tax in Illinois--which he was required to collect--he was at a disadvantage from the people buying over the Internet. Is that fair? The Supreme Court said it was up to Congress to decide whether that is fair. It is up to Congress to decide whether Internet sales should be subject to State and local sales taxes. That is why we are here. To my way of thinking, this is just a question of fundamental fairness. We are not talking about imposing a new tax--not at all. We are talking about existing taxes. In my State of Illinois, incidentally, when I buy something on the Internet, I have a legal obligation to pay sales tax on it, but it is done voluntarily. Many times it is not collected when I make the purchase. I do it on my State income tax return each year.…”