Sneaky new internet tax pushing through fast

I am just wondering how many of you guys who Tea Baggers who constantly decry a smaller government and less entitlements are collecting Social Security and Medicare?

For Timrhu: the reason why the Feds can administer an Internet Sales Tax is because only Congress (and as delegated to the Executive branch) can regulate interstate commerce. In fact, that was one of the original (and few) functions of Federal power as outlined in the Constitution.

"We don't pay taxes. Only little people pay taxes."
__Leona Hemsley

Who went on to spend 18 months in prison for tax evasion, but someone had to stand up to the 99%. :-)

All the best,
Nonoise

( http://news.yahoo.com/few-senators-block-vote-internet-sales-tax-bill-195924551--finance.html )

Guys, people on both sides of this issue are making valid points and there is a common thread that runs through all of it. I'm telling you, it's the failure of common ascent to social contract. There is no difference between Leona Hemsley and the millions of people in the US whose career objective is to become a 300 pound parasite. Simply stated, there is a price that ALL of us must pay for the benefits associated with living together as a society. Until and unless JFK's encouragement to think beyond ourselves becomes the predominant attitude, we will suffer from bloated government, unsustainable entitlements, and class warfare.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out how to fix the internet sales problem. You simply collect tax based on the state of the seller, not the buyer. This means the small sellers don't file taxes in 50 states, they collect and file taxes in the state in which they are located. If I live in one state and drive to another, I don't ask the merchants in the state I am visiting to send sales tax back to my home state.

Brownsfan, great points about "ascent to a social contract". That requires an honor system which most people feel doesn't apply to themselves, only others.

My point about Max Baccus former staffers going to work for Wall Street is that all these staffers do is prowl the halls of Congress lobbying for their clients who want nothing but to change the tax code. When people hear the word lobbyists, they think of roads, harbors, shopping malls and other mundane things but the lions share of lobbying is for tax breaks. There were only about 300 lobbyist in Reagans time and now there's over 3,000. They had to devote a street to them to accommodate their lives and access to seek out politicians. It's called K Street since that's where most of them live. K Street is always mentioned in the news as shorthand for lobbyists and the high and mighty they represent. These lobbyist and staffers go back and forth switching from public work to private work in their careers writing legislation that screws us to the benefit of their clients. They know the system inside out. Lots of times they don't even bother to wait to come back to public work as a staffer and just write the laws themselves and give to their friends in the Congressman or Senators office to have them sign it as if they wrote it themselves.

Until money is taken out of politics, Citizens United is overturned (corporations are not people and money is not the same thing as speech) and public financing is the ONLY way to fund elections, all bets are off. All discussion is academic. Any conclusion, moot.

Thank goodness we have this hobby to escape to. It's the only real solace I get nowadays, which, come to think of it, aptly describes an audiophile.
:-)

All the best,
Nonoise