Can't we all just not get along?

To say there is partisanship in Washington is as shocking as mentioning the fact that the sun rises in the east. But every once in a while the stars align behind an issue and people from both sides of the aisle put aside their difference and work together for the greater good. Unfortunately that hasn’t happened for a while in this town, and doesn’t seem like it will for a while still, even on an obviously obsolete and regressive tax on the poor like the telephone excise tax, aka the Spanish-American War Tax.

You remember the Spanish-American War, right? No, of course you don’t. No one alive now was alive during the 10 month battle with Spain to free Cuba (let’s not go into how well that worked out long-term). It was in 1898, when only the wealthy had telephones. Congress, looking for ways to fund the war, imposed a “temporary” penny tax on each phone call made to cover the cost of our efforts. Since it was rich people calling rich people, most people paid no mind to (or any part of) the tax.

Flash forward, the phone went from being a luxury to a necessity, rich and poor alike got phones in their homes, and the tax went on. Not many people were aware that the tax even existed, let alone that they were paying it. Even when it went from a penny a call to a 3 percent tax, most people were unaware. Who really sits down and studies their phone bill every month?

There have been several moves to eliminate this tax over the last couple of decades, but to no avail. The closest Washington has come to making this tax go the way of the Dodo was in 2000 when repeal passed both the House and Senate, only to be vetoed by President Clinton. (For the record, it was part of a larger bill President Clinton vetoed, not just the excise tax repeal.)

Since then it has taken a back seat to, well, everything else the government has been doing. Congress has never been known for their eagerness to allow us to keep our own money, it’s simply not a priority, and way too much fun for them to spend.

But the tax is back! Thanks to Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), there is a move in the House to eliminate the excise tax once and for all. Congressman Lewis realizes what any one who actually thinks about this out of date tax would realize; a tax once meant to soak the wealthy has become a tax that soaks the poor!

A phone costs the same for a rich person as it does for a poor person. And the wealthy are more likely, in this day and age, to have cell phone and use broadband Internet phones, or VoIP technology, neither which were dreamed of in the time of the Spanish-American War, and therefore are not subject to the tax.

Republicans are lining up to support Congressman Lewis’ bill, which, in a perfect world would fly through Congress like a hot knife through water. (I know the common saying is butter, but water takes even less effort.) But this is Washington, about as far from a perfect world as Dennis Kucinich is to being a viable candidate for president. (Not to be mean, but if he runs again in 2012 he will pretty much solidify his position as the Pat Paulsen or Lyndon LaRouche of the modern age.)

The Politico reported today that Democrats are hesitant to get behind repeal because, well, they love taxes. After having just passed what would amount to the largest tax increase in US history, you’d think they’d be less inclined to block repeal of a tax that hurts the poor, the people they always claim to care about more than anyone (while the cameras are rolling, anyway).

But all is not lost. The bill can live, and actually become law, if you make your voices heard! Got to www.house.gov and look up your Member of Congress. Call, email, send smoke signals, telegrams (if they still exist), pony express, to your Congressman. They’ll listen to you over and above anyone else because they’re afraid of you. You are the only one with the power to fire them. Sure, a lot of them will sell you out when they think or know you’re not looking, but if you let them know you’re watching they will behave the way they should, probably the way they said when they ran in the first place.

If they don’t, fire them. That’s the great thing about our Government; we get a chance to fire those we elected who do a horrible job, who don’t do what is best for the country, who don’t do what they said they were going to do. If only it we could apply that common sense logic to teachers! But that is for another entry.