Political Quotes

“all of us who recognize the importance of the new economy and who believe we should encourage its expansion by minimizing regulation and taxes and maximizing the freedom to innovate should join together today to express our concerns. This cleverly packaged proposal that the Republicans are offering is really the very first vote in this Congress on whether to impose a new Federal tax on electronic commerce. I believe we should resoundingly reject it. Through 3 days of hearings this week before the Committee on Ways and Means, on which I serve, the same Republicans who are here today urging this proposal have been urging us to rely on taxation of electronic commerce as a major new source of Federal revenue. The Republican-appointed Director of the Joint Committee on Taxation issued a report this very week noting that these new Republican tax proposals assume "that retail sales through the Internet would be subject to the same Federal tax as other retail sales, notwithstanding the current moratorium." This same report notes that in order to maintain the existing level of Federal revenues, the tax that Republicans would impose on Internet sales and on sales across America would be 59.5 percent over 10 years. That is 60 percent. Those are not my numbers, those are the Republican numbers.…”