Online Sales Tax

Sent to my Congressman and Senators:

Please vote against the online sales tax bill, at least in its current form.

This sounds like government trying to close a loophole, but then doing so by committee - coming up with the most convoluted solution possible.

First, the narrow focus of the bill  - which feels like a knee-jerk reaction - leaves other loopholes, such as catalog and phone sales, unless of course, the bill is incorrectly named.

It would be much simpler if all sellers simply collected taxes for where they are located, regardless of where the buyer is located. This would even be simpler than the current arrangement, where they collect tax for other states where they have arrangements.

In fact, this is already possible. A state can require sellers to collect tax on all sales and not exclude out-of-state buyers.

There is one problem. The federal government wants to fix the issue. But this is a state issue. State tax. State sellers. State buyers. State issue. Not federal.

If the federal government places restrictions on this possibility, then the current problem needs to be fixed, not more problems created, by removing improper regulations on the states, rather than creating yet more regulations.

Private Jets

Do you remember back when Congress got all over the heads of the auto manufacturers for flying to DC in private jets?

Well, Congress has now ordered half a billion dollars in private jets for their own use.

The Air Force maintains the aircraft for Congressional use, and they say only two jets are needed (to replace old ones), not all the ones that have been ordered. They say that they don't need them and that they didn't order them. Congress went around the AF and ordered the jets themselves.