Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise today in support of the Marketplace Fairness Act. I am pleased to join Senators Enzi and Durbin and many of my colleagues in this bipartisan effort to pass this bill that will help small businesses in my State expand and create jobs by ending a tax loophole that benefits out-of-State remote sellers. I want to particularly commend Senator Enzi and Senator Durbin for their long- time leadership on this issue. They have been relentless in trying to find an effective way to allow States to collect sales taxes on items that are actually delivered into their States. This is a huge issue in my State of Rhode Island where businesses are having a very difficult time competing against out-of-State retailers because of, frankly, the outdated rules that require shops on Main Street to collect taxes while their out-of-State online competition does not. When you go to the stores in Rhode Island you'll see that they are facing this with increasing frequency. And small business men and women are demanding help. When Internet commerce was in its early stages, online companies were basically exempted by what is now, by all accounts, an out-of-date Supreme Court decision, from collecting State and local sales taxes for sales in States where they do not have a physical presence--despite the fact that there was still an obligation to collect sales taxes on those purchases. That obligation was shifted to consumers, who are often unaware they have an obligation.…”