Max Baucus: “I think this amendment is not yet ready. It is premature. This is a very complicated question, and I think there has…”

“I think this amendment is not yet ready. It is premature. This is a very complicated question, and I think there has been a lot of easy talk and a little bit of herd instinct here that, gee, because most States are not sales tax States, therefore this amendment should be adopted. The fact that is this is an extremely complicated question. For example, who is going to enforce this statute? Is the State of California, for example, or the State of Massachusetts going to enforce the noncollection of sales tax in another State? That is revolutionary. I cannot think of an instance where this Congress has legislated that a State can go into another State and enforce the taxation laws in that second State or when a State has empowered the State court in one State to go to another State and enforce the State taxation in that other State. It has not happened. It is not only complicated, but it is revolutionary. We have not done this before--nothing similar. I understand the arguments of those who want to pass this. They make some good points. I have said to Senator Durbin, Senator Enzi, and others that we in the Finance Committee will very seriously take this up as soon as we can and will probably in the context of tax reform. Let me repeat.…”