-----Original Message-----
From: <charmuth@aol.com>
Date: Monday, October 22, 2001 2:08 PM
Subject: Hands Off The Internet !!

*********************************
I Was Afraid This Would Happen

For a long time now, there has been a frantic email going around the 'net urging people to write their congressman and stop them from passing Bill 602(P) which would, the email claims, result in taxing the Internet.

There is no such thing as Bill 602(P) and that email is in fact a hoax.

But much like the Boy Who Cried Wolf, now that a REAL threat to tax the Internet has come along, a lot of people think it's still a hoax.

I can't be more clear than this: THIS IS NOT A HOAX!

But don't take my word for it.  Go to the official congressional web site and see for yourself.  If you surf over to http://thomas.loc.gov you'll find both the House version of the legislation to keep the ban on Internet taxation as well as the Senate version.

The House version is bill H.R. 1552.

The Senate version is bill S. 777

So just go to the congressional web site.  In the box titled "By Bill NI can't be more clear than this:  THIS IS NOT A HOAX!
umber," type in the above bill number (one at a time) and hit "Search." The full bill and any other information you might want will be right there.

But in case you're one of those government conspiracy nuts who thinks this official congressional web site might also be a hoax (yes, some people in Palm Beach, Florida and Berkeley, California ARE that dense!), then go verify this issue by doing an Internet-wide search at www.google.com.  Just type in the official title of the House version of this bill in the search
engine, the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act," and follow all the links that'll pop up to various official news articles and documents.

Of course, maybe this is all just a left-wing media hoax and you don't trust the Washington Post, the New York Times or CNN.  Can't fully blame you there.  Then go to this link to read a Saturday editorial on this matter by the highly CONSERVATIVE and highly-respected Washington Times: http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20011020-587828.htm (see below)

The article ends with this dire warning:  "Nonethelesss, as of Sunday, Internet taxation becomes a definite possibility once again - and Congress should act immediately to prevent it from ever happening."

Folks, don't be fooled by people on your email list who tell you you've been duped.   I wouldn't do that to you and you should know that by now.  What's happened here is some people who don't pay as close attention to the world around them as you do are ASSUMING this Internet tax legislation and efforts to extend the ban on Internet taxes is the same thing as the hoax that's been going around for so long.

Again...IT ISN'T.  This is the real deal.  By now we all should know what happens when you ASSUME something.  That's what your friends and colleagues are doing.

So ignore the well-intentioned but wholly ignorant people who are telling you that THIS particular piece of legislation is a hoax.  Forgive them, for they know not what they speak.  And go to www.libertypetitions.com and immediately sign the online petition urging the Senate, which reconvenes tomorrow, to extend the ban on Internet taxation.

And you might want to save this particular email to copy and send to anyone else who tries to tell you this is a hoax.

Chuck Muth
Editor
GOP News & Views
3659 Scotwood Street
Las Vegas, NV  89121
Phone:  (702) 454-0350
Fax:  (702) 454-7798
E-mail: chuckmuth@earthlink.net

EDITORIAL • October 20, 2001

Hands off the Internet

Tomorrow, the federal ban on Internet taxatation expires — which means Americans could soon find their online purchases subject to state and local sales taxes, as well as "access taxes" of up to 10 percent to 15 percent of their monthly Internet service fees simply to get online. Even though online retailers often have no physical presence in the states and localities where their customers live — and thus, unlike conventional retailers, who maintain a physical storefront, do not cost state or local government anything in terms of police, fire protection, emergency services, etc. — state and local governments nonetheless are hungry to sink their fangs into this potentially huge vein of revenue.

They want online vendors to calculate and collect sales taxes from their customers all over the country and then remit those taxes to the state (and, where applicable, town, city or county) in which those customers live. So there's a double whammy here: Not only would online purchases be taxed, immediately liquidating one of the primary advantages online retailers have against their conventional competitors — but these private businesses would, in addition, have to spend their own time and resources calculating, collecting and keeping track of those taxes for potentially thousands of state and local governments (there are more than 7,000 states, counties, cities and towns with their own sales taxes).

The phone companies likewise see an opportunity — for themselves — to have Internet access itself taxed. Currently, Internet users pay a set monthly fee to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as America Online, and get unlimited access in return. Through Instant Messaging and e-mail, Internet users are effectively able to circumvent exorbitant long-distance phone charges, yet still remain in daily, direct communication with friends, family and business contacts all over the world. The phone companies have chafed over this for years — and would love to put the kibosh on it.

The Internet and Internet commerce, by side-stepping the bludgeon of taxation and doing an end-run around the inefficiencies of the government-encrusted conventional marketplace, drove the surging economy of the late 1990s — and the Internet remains one of the single biggest growth engines of the American economy, generally speaking. Taxing and regulating the Internet, as some politicians and many grasping bureaucrats within state and local governments are so eager to do, would only exacerbate the current economic downturn. It is absolutely the last thing this country needs right now.

Congress has not as yet extended the moratorium on Internet taxation, passed in 1998, in part because of the events of Sept. 11 and the resultant immediate shift in focus to terrorism and the fight against it. Nonethelesss, as of Sunday, Internet taxation becomes a definite possibility once again — and Congress should act immediately to prevent it from ever happening.