Press Conference in Opposition to Internet Sales Taxes

This morning, C4L President John Tate participated in a press conference with a group of freshman legislators from the House and Senate, including Senators Paul and Cruz, along with Representatives Thomas Massie (KY-4), Steve Daines (MT), Ron DeSantis (FL-6), among others.

As John mentioned in his remarks,

The Marketplace Fairness act is not about leveling the playing field between Main Street and the Internet. It is about Big Business using the strong arm of government to put their smaller competitors out of business.

Stopping the Marketplace Fairness Act is one of Campaign for Liberty’s top priorities this year and we will continue to oppose any attempt to impose more regulations and higher taxes on the American people.

It's remarkable to see the majority of the outspoken opposition coming from the newest members of Congress, standing up to the corporate lobbyists and special interests groups from the big box retailers such as WalMart, Target, and their newest compatriot Amazon.

While it still surprises many, Amazon.com began lobbying for the so-called "Marketplace Fairness Act" after their business model changed, resulting in them having a physical presence in a majority of states. Amazon is now pushing for Internet sales taxes to establish a competitive advantage over smaller Internet start-ups.

As an interesting side note, this legislation seems to highlight a generational gap that has shown up before on tech issues: Not one Republican member of the Senate under 50 voted for the so-called "Marketplace Fairness Act" on final passage.

Despite it's passage in the Senate, Campaign for Liberty is seeing progress in terms of halting this legislation in the House. Fifteen members of the House joined Rep. Thomas Massie in sending a letter to leadership urging them not to bring this legislation up for a vote. Today's press conference is another step toward raising awareness about this new tax scheme and C4L will continue to reach out to millions of Americans on this issue in order to build up grassroots support for these new legislators and to further the opposition to this ill-conceived legislation.

Be sure to sign C4L's petition to Bob Goodlatte, Eric Cantor, and John Boehner, urging House leadership to use their position to defeat this legislation.