http://tenvolt.com/distractions/taxhoax.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: Ra�l Barreras <raulb@IGLOU.COM>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Monday, July 05, 1999 10:22 PM
Subject: E-mail legislation

>Fellow listees,
>
>I got the following from a friend and haven't checked it out yet. True?
>False? Maybe someone in the list has an idea of what is happening, if
>anything. If true, I believe that it would be very detrimental to all.
>
>----------------------------------------------
>Date: Sunday, June 27, 1999 6:39 PM
>
>Please read the following carefully if you intend to stay online and
>continue using email: The last few months have revealed an alarming
>trend in the Government of the United States attempting to quietly push
>through legislation that will affect your use of the Internet. Under
>proposed legislation the U.S. Postal Service will be attempting to bilk
>email users out of "alternate postage fees". Bill 602P will permit the
>Federal Govt to charge a 5 cent surcharge on every email delivered, by
>billing Internet Service Providers at source. The consumer would then =
>be
>billed in turn by the ISP. Washington D.C. lawyer Richard Stepp is
>working without pay to prevent this legislation from becoming law. The
>U.S. Postal Service is claiming that lost revenue due to the
>proliferation of email is costing nearly $230,000,000 in revenue per
>year. You may have noticed their recent ad campaign "There is nothing
>like a letter". Since the average citizen received about 10 pieces of
>email per day in 1998, the cost to the typical individual would be an
>additional 50 cents per day, or over $180 dollars per year, above and
>beyond their regular Internet costs. Note that this would be money paid
>directly to the U.S. Postal Service for a service they do not even
>provide. The whole point of the Internet is democracy and
>non-interference. If the federal government is permitted to tamper with
>our liberties by adding a surcharge to email, who knows where it will
>end. You are already paying an exorbitant price for snail mail because
>of bureaucratic efficiency. It currently takes up to 6 days for a =
>letter
>to be delivered from New York to Buffalo. If the U.S. Postal Service is
>allowed to tinker with email, it will mark the end of the "free"
>Internet in the United States. One congressman, Tony Schnell (r) has
>even suggested a "twenty to forty dollar per month surcharge on all
>Internet service" above and beyond the government's proposed email
>charges. Note that most of the major newspapers have ignored the story,
>the only exception being the Washingtonian which called the idea of
>email surcharge "a useful concept who's time has come" (March 6th 1999
>Editorial. Don't sit by and watch your freedoms erode away! Send this
>e-mail to EVERYONE on your list, and tell all your friends and =
>relatives
>to write to their congressman and say "No!" to Bill 602P. It will only
>take a few moments of your time, and could very well be instrumental in
>killing a bill we don't want.
>
> Kate Turner Assistant to Richard Stepp,
>Berger, Stepp and Gorman Attorneys at Law
>