Ediblog.com
Nathan Tabor
When Free Speech Isn't Free
©2007 Nathan Tabor
The
right to free speech is one of the most convoluted issues of our day.
On one hand, liberals insist that every obscenity and
pornographic display needs to be protected under the sacred mantle of
free speech. Yet, on the
other hand, they want to turn criticism of same sex marriage into a
crime and public prayer into a cause for condemnation.
Oh,
yeah—and some public officials also believe that free speech shouldn't
really be free if you're using the Internet to communicate your ideas.
Here's
the situation: In 1998, a
law was enacted stating that local governments, by and large, cannot tax
Internet access. This would
include cable modems, DSL or digital subscriber lines, or
Blackberry-type wireless transmission.
While ordinarily I'm understandably leery of legislation coming
out of
But
there's one problem: the law
is scheduled to expire November 1. As
a result, debate has re-ignited over whether the ban on Internet
taxation should be made permanent. Rep.
Hank Johnson (D-GA), put it this way in a CNET news report:
"If we could liken the Internet to a mall, a place where you
can go in and purchase goods and services, and also liken it to a
library, a place where you can go and pull a book, pull a resource, and
obtain some information, why would we tax a person upon entering a mall
or why would we tax a person upon entering the library?"
But
state and local government lobbying groups are balking.
They say that a permanent ban "deprives" them of
revenue sources—in other words, they're being deprived of the
hard-earned money of taxpayers.
As Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was quoted as saying, "Taxes
always impact everything else in our economy.
I would assume they've had a major impact in this area as
well."
Simple
economics states that, if you tax a product or service, consumption can
understandably decrease. In
other words, if you tax Internet service, you're going to see fewer
people being able to afford it. That
means that limousine liberals might be able to cruise the Information
Superhighway with ease, but middle-class and lower-income folks would
have a tough time getting on the on ramp.
In
fact, economist Scott Mackey believes the ban on Internet taxation is
good for the growth of the World Wide Web.
Mackey was quoted on CNET News as saying, "A permanent
moratorium will send a strong, pro-investment signal to those
entrepreneurs that are looking to improve communications and commerce
over the Internet."
I
think the lesson in this is that some public officials on the local,
state, and federal level are determined to tax anything that sits,
moves, or beats the liberal news networks to the punch on breaking news
stories. Mainstream
journalists have said for a long time that bloggers represent a threat
to traditional journalism—and so it only stands to reason that
reporters and their buddies on Capitol Hill want to make life difficult
for Joe Average Internet User.
Hitting computer users with a frivolous tax is one
way to do that. Thankfully,
however, when it comes to this taxation plan, there are some members of
Congress who are ready to press the delete button.
Nathan Tabor is a conservative political activist based in Kernersville, North Carolina. He has his BA in Psychology and his Master’s Degree in Public Policy. He is a contributing editor at www.theconservativevoice.com. Contact him at Nathan@nathantabor.com.