Congress is trying to get internet sales tax passed, using the recession as an excuse.

It cannot be done without Obama's signature. Obama can say "don't bother passing it, I will keep my promise and veto it", or he can say "I was a liar, hand me my pen".

Let's see which he does.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10220649-38.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,516988,00.html

Don't forget, the cigarette tax increase has already happened. I think you will find that there will be many new taxes slipped in while nobody is paying attention.

Obama never said "Read my lips" like your boy Bush did in 1988. He said income taxes would go down on 95% of working families. I personally think you'd need to be an idiot to think we can spend and run up huge debt in boom times like Bush and the Republicans did and not have to pay the bill someday. I don't think income taxes should be cut on anyone right now if you ask me, at least not as permanent tax cuts. We can't afford it anymore.

Lots of things are considered by "Congress" - an internet sales tax is far from a done deal. It's not going to be "slipped in" - this issue would huge headlines and would be controversial. For now, it's just another hypothetical right-wing fantasy.

Andrew, you're a regular Perry Mason when it comes to Obama needing a defense. Congratulations on your new roll.

By the way, "a bill ready to introduce Monday" is not exactly are right-wing fantasy.

Deane, you ought to know that all kinds of wacky bills get introduced in the Congress, on all sides. That doesn't mean they have any support or any chance of even reaching the floor for a vote, let alone passing even one house of Congress. Leave it to you to work yourself into a tizzy over something that is far from ever becoming law.

I could care less about them collecting taxes on internet sales. What I care about is some government scheme requiring paperwork filed quarterly for 50 states and checks going out to 50 states.

I don't know if you realize all of the meaningless bullshit paperwork business have to deal with now. There's a reason some of us dislike big government.

That is why it is not likely to pass.

Deane, how about single pay sales tax?




Come on! Laugh.

Single pay sounds good when it is spoken, but the devil is in the details. Collecting taxes for 7000 entities, or just 50 states, means one would have to report sales for all 50 states individually, or even worse, include municipalities individually. A frigging nightmare. Writing one check would hardly improve the nightmare.

The only people who like taxes going up are the have-nots with their hands out.

Well, I was just making fun.

The fun was all your transactions running through Uncle Sam, first! Then you don't even write the check! Totalitarian solution to the Internet Sales Tax problem!

Was totally facetious.

The issue of taxes, while admittedly important, was nowhere near the top of my list for why I voted for Obama. Nor was it a reason I gave McCain consideration. I know they are ultimately intertwined - but so is everything else. If Obama makes my taxes go up, I deal with that as best I can.

CJ, the fact he said they wouldn't doesn't bother you?

I don't know yet. I'll cop to feeling pissed off about it if it happens. But the lack of a formal statement about something that hasn't happened yet does not bother me, no.

If you are wanting me to admit that Obama is not perfect, I do so right here and now.

I too own a business. Eliminating paperwork is just not a motivating factor for me in this case.

But you can certainly hold me to being disappointed by actual results. Fair enough?

Oh, and I want higher taxes on cigarettes.

And I smoke.

Deane gets all worked up about politicians who don't keep their campaign promises - well, about Democrats anyway. He'll pretend to be upset with Republicans now and then but for some reason, you rarely heard Deane criticize Republicans when they were in power. Hmm, wonder why that is?

Actually, I think there were multiple such posts. However, who's counting?

I believe there probably were many posts too, fwiw.

But if this is a conversation about whether or not I can trust Obama, all I can say is that right now, I do. There are TONS of ways to chip away at that trust. This is not one of them...yet. But I'm keeping an open mind about it. I always said that I will, internally, hold Obama to a higher standard. In my world, and with things that are important to me, that trust has not been broken...yet.

Obama CAN do plenty wrong. I still really like what he is doing to fix some of the things that were / are important to me though. An internet sales tax, while possibly a wrong thing to do, in no way has been proven to me to be an issue on my radar...yet.

Right - an internet sales tax is only on Deane's radar because he's scratching for anything possible target of criticism about Obama - even hypotheticals.

I trust him as well.

And I too want higher taxes on smokes, and I smoke. But, I smoke less now! Funny how that works. Another tax and I'll probably find it too painful to continue.

I'm concerned about the lack of prosecution and lack of will to roll back Bush powers. It's just concern though. Not sure how it will play out, and Obama deserves the options Bush left him to sort it out.

Andrew, these libs have sucked you down to their level. Are you sure you want to go there?

CJ, I've long thought of you as a fair and open minded person, interested in the facts whatever they may be.

It's funny: While I'm thrilled Bush is out of the White House and has been replaced by an intelligent, thoughtful, rational human being, I'm not exactly in love with Obama. I think he's doing fine, but I wouldn't give him an A+ either. Yet I feel inclined to defend him against some of the silly attacks against him (e.g. Deane).

I also wish to defend him from some attacks on the left. I think Obama made the right choice in deciding not to prosecute CIA interrogators who were following a legal opinion from the then-executive branch. You can't work in that business and constantly need to consult your own attorney about whether your actions are legal or not - and worry about if you'll get prosecuted some day when the political winds change. These people are on the front lines of protecting the nation from national security threats, after all. That should be their highest priority.

I do hope Obama's justice department will go after a few of the higher-ups in Bush's administration, though - people who issued these highly dubious legal opinions in the first place. But I doubt that's going to happen, either, unfortunately.

I'm not at all happy with what Bush did, and some of the people he appointed. That AG from Missouri, I can't even remember his name, was a real dunce.

I'm real happy with Obama being as aggressive as he has been so far. He's the first President we've had to date that has really gone after the problems. I'm anxious to see if his approach with people like Castro and Chavez will work. Not speaking to them certainly didn't.

My major concerns with him are the incredible spending levels he is proposing, creeping socialism and bigger government meddling in everything we do.

No question, he is one of the most intelligent Presidents we've had in decades. I just hope his background doesn't lead him in the wrong direction. I still worry about his gravitation in the past toward some of the people he sucked up to.

Congress is trying to get internet sales tax passed, using the recession as an excuse.

It cannot be done without Obama's signature. Obama can say "don't bother passing it, I will keep my promise and veto it", or he can say "I was a liar, hand me my pen".

Let's see which he does.

This Bill has nothing to do with the federal government collecting taxes from internet sales. It's about states that have sales taxes (BTW, Oregon doesn't have one) losing tax revenues because of a 'loophole' in the law.

Deane, your sudden professed love for Obama (except for spending) doesn't quite match up with your posting history criticizing him at every turn.

As for the massive spending, here's a clue: sometimes you have to spend money in the face of a massive economic downturn. The time to balance the budget and be fiscally responsible (e.g. not cut taxes on billionaires) would have been about 4-5 years ago when the economy was better, so we'd have had some cushion for a downturn. Republicans' inability to do so then has made Obama's job that much harder now.

Also, many things that have been put off - roads, bridge maintenance, etc. - finally have to be upgraded and paid for, after years of neglect. It's not like Obama is proposing huge new welfare programs or anything - things like infrastructure are investments (e.g. Hoover Dam, Eisenhower's interstate highway system) that wind up paying huge dividends for the nation and private businesses later on. I happen to think a high speed rail system regionally is very much needed in the US - Europe and Asia are decades ahead of us in this area, and the investments here are long overdue. Our health care system is also in desperate need of an overhaul and that's going to cost some money in the short term. In the long term it will be worth it.

I'd really like to see Obama cut military spending, something he doesn't sound inclined to do. We don't need all these huge weapons systems that are always being dreamed up. The US already spends more money on our military than the rest of the world combined. We need a strong military, but we don't need a Pentagon that gets every new weapons system contractors can propose.

That AG from Missouri, I can't even remember his name, was a real dunce.

Actually, history has shown that Ashcroft was one of the few Bush appointees with a shred of moral{s) or two. He's nobody I admire though, but he's also not someone in the same class as Rove, Cheney, Gonzales, Rumsfeld et al.

Ashcroft said NO when Cheney's people wanted to re-authorize the wireless eavesdropping program while Ashcroft was in the hospital. That episode nearly led to the collapse of Bush's government in 2004, because the entire top Justice Department leadership, including Ashcroft, was about 24 hours from resigning en masse if Bush re-authorized the program without their consent. Bush at first had agreed to do so, then was surprised to learn of the revolt in his Justice Department (kept from him by Cheney) and did and about-face at the last moment.

Yeah, Ashcroft was not someone I admired at all until Gonzales came along...

Andrew, you're a regular Perry Mason when it comes to Obama needing a defense. Congratulations on your new roll.


As you were for DUHbya!

Andrew, these libs have sucked you down to their level. Are you sure you want to go there?


And looked what the neo-CONers have done to you....
WOW!

Trixter, does your father know you're playing with the computer?

Does you father know you still play with your 'toy', Deane?

"Does you father know you still play with your 'toy', Deane?"

Listenerpete, I can understand why you might refer to yours as a little toy, however mine qualifies as the real thing.

I didn't say it was little or not the 'real thing', Deane, did I? If you can't figure out that I used the word 'toy' in favor of a more descriptive word, you're even dumber than I thought.

However mine qualifies as the real thing.



I doubt that....

Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
(And, I could be referring to several of "them," namely: Bush, Obama, or McCain.)

The thing I wonder is why they don't place a tax on coffee, soda, and products made with high fructose corn syrup. Nobody needs any of it, yet consume it by the truckloads.

Oh, BTW, I saw on Page A2 of the Oregonian this morning that Obama is re-authorizing "No Child Left Behind."