Comment Re:About damn time (Score 1) 257
That's great (though not what I'd call "conservative"), but it doesn't address sales tax, which is a state and local level issue, and was only being considered federally (with this bill) because so many states were pissed about it. They need to just dump sales tax altogether (i.e., ban it at the federal level), and if a consumption tax really is necessary, then levy it at the federal level only as a VAT just like every other first-world country does. A single VAT (payable to a single governmental entitiy) would be fairly simple for internet merchants to deal with, and would eliminate all the avoidance of use taxes. But if they're going to keep their crazy and arcane scheme of sales taxes with 10,000 jurisdictions, forget it. And the idea of requiring merchants to use a third-party processor to handle sales taxes is wrong too, since 1) that processor won't know what is and isn't taxable except for some general things (i.e. shipping), and 2) requiring people to use particular for-profit businesses is fascism.