bobbyw24
04-07-2010, 05:53 AM
A massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain a national public safety wireless broadband network.
The Obama administration has a plan to expand online innovation and boost national public safety. And it wants to do it with more taxes and higher fees.
The massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain a national public safety wireless broadband network.
The FCC says the national tax would eliminate the headaches that come with varying state and local taxes on digital goods and services. And the public safety network would help avoid the communication failures among first responders to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But the proposals are already drawing fierce criticism.
"Americans already suffering from a recession prolonged by Mr. Obama's policies are being asked to concur that raising – yes, raising – taxes on a nationwide basis will somehow 'reduce uncertainty and remove one barrier to online entrepreneurship and investment,'" Timothy Lee, vice president of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Freedom, wrote in an opinion article published in the Washington Times.
Lee said the FCC's agenda echoes Ronald Reagan's portrayal of government logic: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it."
But Lee's description is "just not correct," FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield says.
"It's not adding taxes," he told FoxNews.com. "It's just saying if there are going to be these taxes, let's do this in a way that is consistent."
Lee countered that, like the new health care law, the proposal gives federal agencies a "wide latitude to interpret, construct and enforce."
And this proposal, he said, prevents consumers from making digital purchases in states with lower or no taxes. "I think it opens the door for a nationwide tax," he told FoxNews.com, adding that the tax is "Orwellian."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/06/obama-administration-targets-internet-taxation/
The Obama administration has a plan to expand online innovation and boost national public safety. And it wants to do it with more taxes and higher fees.
The massive national broadband plan the Federal Communications Commission released last month proposes creating a national framework for the taxation of digital goods and services and imposing a fee to establish and maintain a national public safety wireless broadband network.
The FCC says the national tax would eliminate the headaches that come with varying state and local taxes on digital goods and services. And the public safety network would help avoid the communication failures among first responders to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
But the proposals are already drawing fierce criticism.
"Americans already suffering from a recession prolonged by Mr. Obama's policies are being asked to concur that raising – yes, raising – taxes on a nationwide basis will somehow 'reduce uncertainty and remove one barrier to online entrepreneurship and investment,'" Timothy Lee, vice president of legal and public affairs for the Center for Individual Freedom, wrote in an opinion article published in the Washington Times.
Lee said the FCC's agenda echoes Ronald Reagan's portrayal of government logic: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it."
But Lee's description is "just not correct," FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield says.
"It's not adding taxes," he told FoxNews.com. "It's just saying if there are going to be these taxes, let's do this in a way that is consistent."
Lee countered that, like the new health care law, the proposal gives federal agencies a "wide latitude to interpret, construct and enforce."
And this proposal, he said, prevents consumers from making digital purchases in states with lower or no taxes. "I think it opens the door for a nationwide tax," he told FoxNews.com, adding that the tax is "Orwellian."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/06/obama-administration-targets-internet-taxation/