Vice Tax or Tax Vice?

From the front line of the New Great Depression:

In his 11 years in the Washington Legislature, Representative Mark Miloscia says he has supported all manner of methods to fill the state’s coffers... most of which, he said, passed “without a peep.”

And so it was last month that Mr. Miloscia, a Democrat, decided he might try to “find a new tax source” — pornography.

The response, however, was a turn-off.

“People came down on me like a ton of bricks,” said Mr. Miloscia, who proposed an 18.5 percent sales tax on items like sex toys and adult magazines. “I didn’t quite understand. Apparently porn is right up there with Mom and apple pie.”

My senior year of college I was a teacher's assistant for Intro to American Government. For this class, I taught a unit on the Constitution. If this was my class room, after reading the above, I would ask my students: "So, do any of you guys see any problems here?"

The two students in my group of half a dozen who had done the reading would say "Doesn't it conflict with freedom of the press?"

"Okay, why would that be?" I'd ask.

The student who hadn't done he reading, but who'd be scrambling through her text book while I was talking, would probably say "yes, it does, because pornography is protected speech, and an 18.5% tax is enough to have a chilling effect on what people read"

"Good, any other problems?" I'd then say

And then, the one kid who may or may not have done his readings but always was on top of things even though he'd be the last to speak up would go: "Who's going to decide what is and isn't porno?"

And there you have it: a class of six freshmen and sophomore non-polisci majors could take apart Rep. Miloscia's idiotic bill inside of two minutes, exposing it as a bill that would create a vague and arbitrary standard under which material would be subjected to this heavy tax, and put the Revenue arm of the State of Washington in the Consitutionally repugenet position of deciding what speech is and is not pornography.

Rep. Miloscia, who's bill shows the Consitutional wisdom of a boiled grapefruit, was shocked at the reception his jackassery received.

Mr. Miloscia said he had also received criticism from an array of residents and business owners, who accused him of attacking the First Amendment and other sacred institutions with his pornography proposal.

“I didn’t know how passionate people are about this stuff.”

Yes Representitive Miloscia, people get passionate when an earnest idiot like you tries to chill their Consitutional Rights.

If you want more money in your state coffers, why not decriminize pot like they're doing in California?