Piggy Report

Here’s your Christmas gift from Sen. Dick Durbin Jackass of Illinois who doesn’t think you pay enough in taxes.

The Dick Durbin Internet Tax

How’s this for an early Christmas gift?

Right before Congress left town for the holidays, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic whip, blew up a bill that would have provided Americans a permanent ban on the taxation of Internet service. Call it his “bah humbug” moment.

Grinch Durbin has promised to hold this bill hostage unless he gets paid a ransom. He says he will only allow a permanent ban on Internet access taxes, if Congress votes to allow state and local sales taxes on Internet purchases.

It’s a game of pick your poison.

This may seem like arcane, insider-baseball stuff, but the economic stakes here are gigantic, as is the future expansion of Internet services. For example, the tax could delay and disrupt the rapid deployment of high-speed broadband service. My colleagues at the Heritage Foundation note that Verizon and AT&T spend about $35 billion a year in broadband wiring and cabling, but a new tax could put this investment in jeopardy. But hold on. I thought the Democrats were in favor of “infrastructure” spending.

That the left is threatening to allow states and localities to tax broadband services is toweringly hypocritical. Liberals love to talk piously about the right to universal Internet access and reducing the “digital divide” in America between rich and poor. This has been their excuse for pushing so-called “net neutrality” regulations on Internet providers. [snip]

Durbin has been a bunghole since he’s been in the Senate. No reason for anyone to expect something different from him now.