Posted on 08/24/2013 11:36:35 PM PDT by Olog-hai
The Obama administration wants to unilaterally raise taxes on phone bills nationwide, bypassing Congress. As White House Spokesman Josh Earnest put it:
Unfortunately, we havent seen a lot of action in Congress, so the President has advocated an administrative, unilateral action to get this done. Were not going to wait for Congress to act.The increased tax would go to a government-run program called E-Rate, which was ostensibly designed to connect low-income schools to high-speed Internet.
Schools applying for E-Rate subsidies run into a number of barriers that lead to delays in distributing funds and connecting schools.
Because of the cumbersome application process for these subsidies, there is over $5 billion sitting in the E-Rate account collected through American tax dollars and not used.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Only Congress can raise taxes.
Not true, as long as Obama has USSC Chief Justice John Roberts sitting on the bench!
So far Obama has done anything he wants to do.
Back when this country had a Constitution
defund the white house
Our gutless/traitorous Congress will do nothing.
Sure, just act on your own, violating the Constitution.
Only Congress has the power to lay taxes.
Only technically true. This tax is really an administrative user fee, not a tax—like Obamacare penalties are really taxes—which means that an administration/administrator has to introduce and implement it.
It’s like the clause that states that revenue bills must originate in the House. The Senate can also introduce legislation to impose or raise taxes (i.e. Obamacare ‘penalties’) as long as they only introduce an invoice, rather than a bill.
If you were a Constitutional Law Professor, like our glorious President, you would understand these distinction; Mr. Roberts and Mr. Holder certain do.
The king has spoken, congress is obsolete, again.
Uhmmmmm twenty years ago they were allocating money to wire schools for the internet. Since then, all that’s needed is a server which they already have, like an AS400. Then they need to run wireless repeaters every few hundred feet. The costs are maybe 10% of what it used to be. That might explain the $5 billion laying around unused.
put that govt concept in the history books
obama and mooch have discovered, UNCHALLENGED, how to use agency reg and executive orders to tax
and then there is that infamous USSC Roberts ruling about obamacare fees....err, taxes...err, fees- ah wth, just pay up, the iRS is all over it
i remember. you and i seem to be the only ones bringing this up. these “funds” have been collected fron land line phone bills for decades.
All schools get free internet from the cable companies
Congress is obsolete until control of the Senate passes to American patriots.
THEN, impeachment of law-breakers and stone-wallers (like Holder) will become possible.
Senate CONTROL should be our goal!
Let’s not let ourselves be distracted by the less-important issues being touted by the MSM.
Bypassing congress and taking unilateral administrative action ... sounds like a dictatorship. His true colors are coming out. ... Fascist POS.
So much for Obama helping the FOLKS that he’s always talking about.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.