The Internet tax moratorium expired on October 21. It did so because one U.S. Senator–Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota–blocked a vote on a House-passed bill that would have extended the ban on Internet taxes for two years.
No voice has been stronger or clearer on the need to maintain the moratorium than that of the Center for Individual Freedom. When Dorgan obstructed extension of the moratorium, the Center ran an ad to identify that responsibility. In response, a Dorgan spokesman attacked the "center for misinformation" and, of course, added that the Senator opposes access taxes and new Internet taxes.
Well, let us explain this bluntly. The tax moratorium was exactly that. Dorgan blocked the vote on extending it because it did not include provisions for the notoriously euphemistic "simplification plan." That plan would give congressional cover for the states to sidestep a Supreme Court decision and force all Internet merchants to collect sales taxes for them, which they don’t have the political courage to do themselves.
So, you see, Dorgan is not for taxes, he’s for something called simplification. That may sell in North Dakota; it may sell in Washington; it may confuse the already confused media. But we’ve got a prediction: It ain’t going to fool anyone who can maneuver a mouse, and if you’re reading this, you can.
Internet Tax Man. That’s what we called him; that’s what he is.
To view the Center’s ad, click here November 1, 2001