TMCnet News
Will the Internet and E-mail be Taxed? I am not the most political person but I do subscribe a great service from a company called GalleryWatch that sends me e-mails whenever keywords are mentioned in bills, press releases, etc. The service has helped me with lots of columns in the past. I recently came across a press release (below) that shows a member of Congress debunking Internet Myths.As someone who writes about technology for a living, I am always happy to see our government take interest in it as well. I remember that around the time of the last presidential election, that Dick Cheney mentioned in an interview that he wasn’t aware of what Napster was (I may have paraphrased a bit) beyond my belief at the time. The service was used by millions, had cult status and was in the news constantly. Political choices can be so ironic… On the one hand, here is someone who says he invented the internet and on the other side s someone who hasn’t heard of the most popular application on it. Bush doesn’t strike me as a person who does any googling, ditto for Kerry. Maybe Congressman Tiberi should run. I don’t know if he is a republican or democrat but at least I can see that he understands technology and has a sense of humor; essential attributes required to be president of the country responsible for advancing technology more than any other nation. ---------------------- Congressman Tiberi's column for the coming week Date: 5/27/2004 COLUMBUS - People write me all the time about items they've seen on the Internet. Most often, they've gone to a website or chatroom and found information about a legitimate issue. Once in a while, though, they are taken in by a bogus claim. One false fear that's been spread through the Internet rumor mill is that Congress is going to tax email. The letters I've received claim that Bill 602P will permit the federal government to charge a 5 cent tax on every email delivered. Internet Service Providers would be billed for the tax, and would simply pass it on to consumers. But there is no such measure. '602P' is not even a valid name for a piece of congressional legislation. The letters sometimes mention a Member of Congress who does not exist, and also reference a Virginia law firm said to be fighting the tax. The law firm doesn't exist, either. Not only is there no legislation, but the FCC has publicly stated that it has no intention of changing the way consumers now pay for Internet service. Even if there were legislation similar to this hoax, I'd firmly oppose it. The last thing we need to do is slow our economic recovery with new taxes. Another phony claim has been circulating for nearly 30 years, long before the birth of the Internet, but I still receive emails about it. This rumor contends that the Federal Communications Commission is planning to limit or ban religious programming, and has been circulating in one form or another since 1975. There's nothing to it and these rumors are, or course, false. The FCC has even set up its own web page to try to debunk them. The FCC has no authority to prohibit radio and television stations from broadcasting religious programs. Do Members of Congress pay Social Security taxes? I hear all the time from people who "saw on the Internet" that we don't. Wrong again. Members of Congress do indeed pay into Social Security, and have been required to do so since 1984. Members belong to the same retirement system as most other federal workers, the Federal Employees Retirement System, and payments to Social Security are required under FERS. But the topper of all Internet hoaxes concerns "the potential deadly chemical dihydrogen monoxide." Just a few weeks ago, I received an email from a self-described graduate student in Columbus urging me to "do something about it." "Not since DDT has there been a more dangerous chemical that industry is being allowed to use at will simply to make huge profits," the email stated. "Dihydrogen monoxide is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people every year and causes severe bodily harm to tens of thousands more." You'd think I or my staff would be aware of such a deadly chemical, but this one had us scratching our heads until we went to (where else?) the Internet to do some research. We quickly found out that dihydrogen monoxide is simply another name for H20, or water. As I noted in my reply to the graduate student who wrote me, I don't think we in Congress will be considering legislation to ban it anytime soon. Congressman Pat Tiberi is a frequent user of dihydrogen monoxide. He can be contacted by email through his website at www.house.gov/Tiberi. |