Tech at Night: Stopping Net Neutrality in the Senate, National Sales Tax plan, CWA backs up AT&T

Tech at Night

Why can’t the news come in even intervals, instead of batching up all at once?

So yes, the Senate Net Neutrality vote is coming up. Credit where it’s due: Kay Bailey Hutchison moved the ball forward on this, no doubt about it. Credit also to Marco Rubio making headlines with his strong support of the repeal.

Advertisement

And Rubio is right: the whole thing is ridiculous. This regulation closes; it does not open the Internet. Which is why Obama is threatening a veto: can’t have the Congress undoing a regulatory power grab, can we? The representatives of the people, what do they know?

Don’t forget to tell your Senators, especially if they’re Democrats or Scott Brown, to vote for the repeal!

Remember the Dick Durbin Internet Sales Tax, the one I said could lead to a national sales tax in the form of the Canadian HST (combination Provincial Sales Tax and national Goods and Services Tax)? Well, Durbin has brought Lamar Alexander and Mike Enzi into the picture, and they have a new plan. Essentially they want to create an interstate compact that, well, harmonizes (*cough* HST *cough*) sales tax systems for all states involved. The simplified system will then be collectable across state lines.

Further, the plan exempts businesses with less than $500,000 in remote sales. So while this turns Durbin’s talk about ‘fairness’ into a lie, it does show at least a willingness to ease the burden on small business.

To be honest, I don’t know what to think of the bill itself yet. I’m going to watch, and read, and make a decision as I gather more information.

Advertisement

Oddly enough, as that group of Senators tries to increase interstate taxation, Joe Lieberman and Dick Blumenthal want to reduce it. I imagine the goal here is to help Connecticut telecommuters dodge New York taxes. Works for me.

Remember the left trying to silence AT&T? Turns out the Media Reform crowd isn’t all that adverse to big money.

Yes, we need to end the Universal Service Fund, not reform it into a different kind of handout. Heritage takes on the topic.

Even lefty CWA says the AT&T/T-Mobile deal will create jobs. CWA jobs. So when the Media Reform crowd says otherwise… oops, too late for that lie.

AT&T seems to think the deal’s delayed, as the LTE network plans are now for 2013. Ah, government, saving us from that most frightening of things: more competition for Sprint Nextel to deal with.

Recommended

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on RedState Videos