O-bumites Creating an American Tass

Make no mistake about it.  Regulation is taxation.  Agents of the state are not volunteers.  Their compensation packages are larded with health and retirement benefits that private sector workers can only envy—as well as to resent and regret having to pony up for the cost.  Now, the Corruptocrats are back with a new round of tax and regulate schemes for the Internet. 

They actually believe that they have a divinely endowed right to take a piece of the action when they find someone who is hardworking and successful.  Theirs is a Tony Soprano type of extortion.  If we refuse to offer up the pound of flesh that they demand, they will wreck the entire operation and insure that no one succeeds. 

The Investors.com editorial “Always More Taxes” exposes some of the latest chicanery by Senator Dick Durbin, Theftocrat, Illinois.  Durbin sponsored a bill that would levy a sales tax to collect revenues on Web sales even when the seller has no physical presence in the buyer's state.  To date, e-commerce has been treated in the same way catalog sales were handled in the days when Americans shopped at Sears and J.C. Penney via the U.S. Postal Service.

Thanks to tax collectors, Amazon.com is closing a Dallas area fulfillment center and canceling a planned expansion of its operations in Texas after the online retailer failed to reach an agreement with the state over taxes.  Dave Clark, who runs the company's operations in North America, said the state's "unfavorable regulatory climate" prompted the decision.

Amazon’s move will cost Texas more than 1000 jobs and tens of millions of dollars in investment.  This is but one consequence of greedily coveting other people’s privately held resources.  Private companies acting as Internet service providers facilitate access to the Web.  The Internet itself is a global network of interconnected computer systems that is not owned by any one entity.  The ISPs are regulated by national, state, and local government agencies.

Since politicians and bureaucrats have largely been prevented from getting their grabby little hands on the Internet, and ISPs are still in private hands, the O-bumatrons want to pull an end run and create a parallel universe-type Internet of their own.  The administration’s brave new Internet is intended to be used for emergencies, health care, education, and energy as though the existing Web cannot provide these services.

Upon closer examination, this federal expansion into the private sector is neither innocuous nor benevolent.  Theodore Forstmann once observed that the gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side.  Much as they did with the healthcare industry, the O-bumites have been practicing their theft-by-regulation tactics against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Comcast, and Time Warner.

The Prowler’s article “National Public Internet,” exposes Theftocrats’ real intentions.  They have been taking steps to create a taxpayer-financed, government-run broadband network that while ostensibly deployed for use by public safety officials, would compete for business against the current wireless broadband companies. 

We have one of the most advanced and competitive wireless networks on the planet, and true to form, O-buma wants to punish success.  When government competes against private enterprise, industries die.  One White House representative said that we're talking about a network that could also be used for commercial purposes…as the government, we'd be able to offer those services at considerably cheaper prices.

Progressives continue to advance White House and Cabinet-level department policies that essentially further 'socialize' our economy, says a senior Republican Commerce Committee aide.  You saw it with net neutrality, you've seen it with health care and the environment and now you're seeing it with wireless communications.  Taking from others against their wishes is still theft.

May your gods be with you.