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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Dirty dealing to pass the Internet Tax Mandate this week?

campaignforliberty

by Norm Singleton on JULY 21, 2014

Unless you act NOW, the National Internet Tax Mandate could sail through the Senate this week!

You see, Campaign for Liberty members have been so successful in keeping the National Internet Tax Mandate from even being considered by the U.S. House that the powerful interests behind it are being forced to “get creative.”

Now, a “bipartisan” group of Senators — led by Big Government Republican Lamar Alexander and acting on behalf of pro-Mandate special interests — is working with Harry Reid to ram the Mandate into law by attaching it to legislation preventing governments from taxing you whenever you go online!

Senator Alexander has even gone as far as to threaten to block passage of the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, a bill that would prevent state and local governments from taxing Internet access, if Senator Reid doesn’t attach the Mandate to it!

And I have heard from Capitol Hill sources that House Republican leadership — desperate to please the pro-Mandate big corporate interests but terrified of being Cantor’d for publicly supporting imposing more regulations on the Internet — has quietly signed off on this deal!

Please call your senators and tell them to vote NO on all votes to attach the so-called “Marketplace Fairness Act” to the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act – including all procedural votes.

You can find your Senator's numbers here.

The first procedural votes could take place as early as today, so it is vital you call your senators right away!

Let me explain more about this secret deal.

In 1998, Congress passed legislation placing a moratorium on taxing Internet access.

Several weeks ago, the House passed a bill making the moratorium permanent, and the bill enjoys broad Senate support.

Lamar Alexander, Harry Reid, and the special interests behind the National Internet Tax Mandate appear to hope that attaching the Mandate to the moratorium bill will provide “cover” for politicians to say they had to support the Mandate in order to ensure you did not have to pay Internet access taxes.

We have come too far in our battle against the Mandate to be defeated by a sleazy deal like this!

The only way to stop this deal is to make sure the politicians clearly see that grassroots Americans are on to this scheme and will not let them get away with it.

Together, we can force Lamar Alexander, Harry Reid, and their silent partners in crime in the Republican House leadership to abandon this sneak attack meant to please big-spending special interests.

So please urge your senators to oppose any effort to include the National Internet Tax Mandate in the moratorium bill.

And make sure they understand you expect them to vote no on all procedural votes to advance this plan, as well.

You can find your senators’ numbers here.

Harry Reid is expected to launch this sneak attack any day now, so please contact your senators immediately!

The National Internet Tax Mandate’s incentive to raise sales taxes will lead to an explosion of already out-of-control state budgets, while raising prices on everything you buy online and freeing tax collectors in one state to pursue retailers across state lines.

In addition, the Mandate completely turns “No Taxation without Representation” on its head by allowing state legislatures to raise taxes on individuals and businesses located out of state with their having little, if any, recourse against those politicians who hike tax rates.

Even worse, the massive cost of complying with the National Internet Tax Mandate could drive many smaller Internet companies out of business — and discourage the creation of the next Amazon.com.

So please urge your senators to both oppose the National Internet Tax Mandate and also any efforts to include it in the moratorium bill.

And if you can, please help Campaign for Liberty mobilize grassroots Americans to stop the Mandate by chipping in $50, $25, or even just $10 today.

But most importantly, please contact your senators right away!

In Liberty,

Norm Singleton
Vice President of Policy

P.S. Harry Reid — at the behest of a “bipartisan” group of senators led by Lamar Alexander — is planning to ram through the National Internet Tax Mandate by attaching it to legislation prohibiting Internet access taxes.

This sleazy move is designed to provide cover for pro-Internet sales tax politicians to claim they “had” to vote for the Mandate in order to protect you from Internet access taxes.

So it is vital your senators hear from you TODAY.


This Call to Action was originally posted here