Political Quotes

“the bill considered by the House today should put to rest any undue concern on the part of the American people that Congress intends to tax their Internet access. By keeping Internet service unregulated and unburdened by taxation, we have allowed millions of Americans to access these services and, in turn, created a boom in electronic commerce that has transformed the way we live and do business today in this country. H.R. 1291 reaffirms the decision made more than a decade ago that access fees should not be imposed on Internet service providers. This has allowed consumers in droves to access the Internet on an affordable flat-rate basis, rather than a per-minute basis. It's simple economics: the less you tax supply, the more consumer demand you create. I recognize that parts of this bill might create the mistaken impression that Congress is encouraging Federal regulators to impose access fees on Internet telephone services. I want to make clear that this bill is no way meant to encourage the FCC to apply existing access charges to providers of Internet telephone services. Rather than pile on additional charges for Internet users, we ought to first figure out how to reform telephone access charges as Congress instructed the FCC to do in 1996. The last thing we want to do is impose charges that will discourage consumers from embracing the Internet and the innovative services that will revolutionize the way we live and work.”