This is the very first WorldNetDaily editorial -- a call to action that
represents not just the viewpoints of one editor or one columnist, but a
plea that reflects the multitude of voices and disparate personalities of
this growing New Media corporation.
We don't plan on writing editorials every day -- at least not for the
foreseeable future. But there is a pressing issue that unites all of us at
WorldNetDaily -- the professional staff, the top executives, the board
members, and certainly the founders. We believe this campaign is critically
important to our future, the future of a free press, and the future of a
free America. Given our growth on the Internet, it's also a cause, we
believe, to which we can make a profound contribution.
The crusade is simple: Don't Tax the Net.
The smart money today says a tax on Internet commerce is all but signed,
sealed, and delivered by politicians scheming in Washington and 50 state
capitals. Never mind government at nearly every level claims to be running
on a surplus. Never mind no one has bothered to explain to the American
people why taxing the Net is a good thing. Never mind that the Internet --
untaxed and unregulated -- is guiding the economy through a record-breaking
upsurge. Never mind that the Internet holds the promise of restoring real
information choices to consumers.
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No, never mind any of that.
The politicians have decided it's time, like it or not, for tollbooths on
the Information Superhighway.
They say it isn't fair that commerce off the Net is taxed. But maybe the
success of the untaxed, unregulated Internet should be an example to these
politicians of what is possible without their intervention in every facet of
our lives.
Like shakedown artists, politicians just want their cut of all this new
action.
Why should the Internet be taxed? As Grover Norquist, president of
Americans for Tax Reform and the consumer/taxpayer representative member of
the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, says, that's not even the
right question. All the building blocks of the Internet -- from phone lines
to cable to all telecommunications -- are already among the most heavily
taxed parts of the American economy. What the politicians are hoping to do
is to grease their palms, again -- to feed over and over at the same trough.
There's an old saying: "The power to tax is the power to destroy." This
has never been truer of the free new medium of the Internet, which poses a
major challenge to the old, established corporate media world. In other
words, this is not a numbers game. We see the issue of Internet taxation as
a freedom issue, not a financial issue. That's why WorldNetDaily, the
Internet's premiere independent news service, is sponsoring a petition to
fight all forms of taxation on Internet commerce.
WorldNetDaily has never before urged people to action. Yes, some of our
columnists have. But the news organization itself has never rallied around a
cause. We believe this campaign is exceptional, and we will do all we can as
a company to defeat every attempt to impose taxes on the Internet at the
local, state, and national level.
After all, that's what a free press for a free people is all about.