By fitsnews – August 2, 2011
While most of Washington, D.C. was standing in front of the mirror last Friday practicing its frumpy face in support of the latest “sky is falling” charade, a small group of Democrats was trying to find a way to collect sales tax on internet purchases.
Wait … what?
That’s exactly what our economy needs right now, isn’t it? More taxes?
“The Main Street Fairness Act doesn’t ask anyone to pay a single penny more in taxes,” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said in a statement accompanying the introduction of his legislation. “Instead, it would help governors and mayors collect taxes that are already owed.”
Well in that case …
Obviously, any way you phrase it Durbin’s legislation is another effort by government to suck more money out of the American economy at a time when the specter of a double-dip recession is looming larger than ever (a.k.a. when our country can least afford it). Not only that, taxing internet purchases would place small businesses at a distinct competitive disadvantage given the disproportionate imposition it would place on their operations.
America needs to be a place where ideas thrive … and are permitted to promote prosperity up and down the socioeconomic ladder.
Taxing internet purchases moves us further away from that goal … while at the same time removing the pressure on government to eliminate functions it shouldn’t be performing in the first place.
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