What a week. I am thrilled to announce three victories (this is not a leftover April Fool’s joke). First, in Missouri. In a rout, 58 percent of voters in Jackson County rejected a plan which would have extended a 3/8-cent sales tax for 40 years to help cover a proposed $1.3 billion stadium for the Royals and an $800 million renovation of Arrowhead Stadium. This happened just days after Virginia dropped their plans to spend more than $2 billion for a sports arena in Northern Virginia. The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) voiced strong opposition to both initiatives. The other victory was a defeat of a proposed flavored tobacco and vape ban in Vermont. Lindsey Stroud (Senior Fellow for Harm Reduction) testified last year and submitted testimony this year in opposition to the ban. Flavors for vaping (and other tobacco harm reduction products) is essential in helping people quit smoking combustible cigarettes. Finally, the Food and Drug Administration approved Monoclonal antibodies
(mAbs) treatments. MAbs is an alternative for immunocompromised patients who cannot take the Covid vaccine or for those who choose not to take the vaccine. The FDA bureaucracy was dragging its feet on granting long-term use for mAbs in treating the virus, but just granted emergency use authorization. A good week, indeed.

Profile in Courage – Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.)

In the lead up to Tax Day, millions of Americans are anxiously scrambling to get their tax returns completed in-person or online. Lawmakers have made the process far more difficult than it needs to be by inserting 17,600 pages worth of rules and stipulations in the tax code. And now, some bureaucrats and members of Congress want to make things even worse by giving the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) the power to prepare returns on behalf of taxpayers. Fortunately, there are a few brave civil servants willing to stand up and fight this costly and dangerous idea. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) has led the charge against the IRS’ “Direct File” Program, which foolishly allows the IRS to act as both tax filer and preparer. The fight against Direct File has been anything but easy, and program proponents have been quick to smear lawmakers such as Rep. Smith for defending taxpayers. For having taxpayers’ back and fighting the good fight against government overreach, Rep.
Smith is most certainly a Profile in Courage.

Compared to many of his fellow lawmakers, Rep. Smith had a humble beginning. He grew up on his family’s farm, which had been passed down over four generations. His dad was a preacher and auto mechanic, while his mom worked at the manufacturing firm Briggs & Stratton. During his studies, his grandfather passed away and left the farm to Jason’s father and uncle. The heirs no longer had an interest in farming and moved to sell the estate, but Jason desperately wanted to hold onto the farm and continue his family’s traditions. With the help of a local banker, he managed to cobble together a loan to purchase the land from his relatives and keep the Smiths in family farming. Recounting the episode, Smith notes that Dodd-Frank banking regulations would have made it all-but-impossible today for a local banker to take a chance on a struggling student for a sizable loan. The future lawmaker quickly developed an appreciation for limited government ideals and sought higher office. In 2005, he
successfully ran to serve Missouri’s 150th Legislative District and became the youngest member of the Missouri House of Representatives at age 25. In his roles as Majority Assistant Deputy Whip and on the Agriculture Policy Committee, Education Committee, and Judiciary Committee, he quickly became known as a champion of fiscal responsibility and rule of law. After Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) resigned her seat in Congress in 2013, a special election ensued for the 8th Congressional district of Missouri. State Rep. Smith saw his opportunity, and became the Republican nominee through a tedious, six-round selection process. Smith won a resounding victory in the general election, clinching nearly 70 percent of the vote against Democrat Steve Hodges.

The family farmer and preacher’s son has been in Congress ever since, fighting for taxpayers and championing fiscal responsibility. In 2017, Rep. Smith worked closely with the Trump administration on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which, “led to a nearly 5 [percent] increase in wages for American workers, a full 1 [percent] increase in economic growth over the average of the previous decade, and the lowest unemployment and poverty rates in 50 years.” He’s also used his position as Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee to rail against out-of-control spending and champion fiscal sanity. Through his leadership the House of Representatives passed H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (TRAFWA) in January. TRAFW would reinstate research and development (R&D) expensing, a provision responsible for a $2 trillion investment explosion after the passage of the TCJA. It would also provide valuable relief for small businesses by increasing the caps on businesses
expensing and the reporting threshold for subcontract labor. Additionally, it will eliminate wasteful, fraud-ridden programs like the COVID-era employee retention tax credit. Most recently, Rep. Smith has stood up for taxpayers by assailing the IRS’s costly, misguided Direct File Program. In 2022, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which provided $15 million to fund a task force to study the feasibility of the IRS preparing returns for taxpayers. Rep. Smith rightly called out the Biden administration for selecting a left-of-center think tank called New America for the “independent” task force, pointing out that New America has a clear ideological conflict. Just two years prior to selection, “New America employees wrote favorably about Senator Warren’s Tax Simplification Act … Specifically, New America wrote ‘the government…can and should build this tool in the coming years.’” Rep. Smith has been right on the money that Direct File, “is simply a way to expand th
e power of the IRS that no one asked for, especially considering Americans already have numerous options for filing free tax returns. From the beginning, the Biden Administration tipped the scales in favor of a direct file program that the American people did not want or need.”

For fighting the good fight to protect taxpayers against an out-of-control IRS, Rep. Smith is a Profile in Courage.

Zombie Net Neutrality is Back

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it would hold a vote later this month to reinstate onerous Title II regulations on the internet. These rules are more commonly known as “net neutrality” regulations. Since its inception, the internet has been primarily classified as a Title I information service, with the government having a light-touch regulatory footprint. Title II regulations – briefly in place from 2015 to 2017 under the Obama administration – would classify the internet as a “common carrier.” This would open the door for more direct and onerous FCC regulations. This move makes little sense. One of the primary reasons the internet was able to grow from a mere idea to the mainstay of American life is due to the government’s willingness to step back and let it grow.

The Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies found that investment into broadband infrastructure dropped by 20 percent to 30 percent between 2011 and 2015. This is the period when President Obama and the FCC began seriously discussing the Title II reclassification, before passing the Open Internet Order four years later. Restoring Internet Freedom Order repealed that classification in 2017, after President Trump took office and installed Ajit Pai as chairman.

Given the disastrous results last time Title II was applied to the internet, there is no excuse to make the same mistakes again. No one can claim ignorance as to the adverse economic effects. Investment will drop once again. Further, the true costs may never truly be known because of the innovations that will likely never occur because of these regulations. The FCC’s announcement includes more than just the restoration of so-called net neutrality. Among the other new powers the Commission desires to arrogate to itself is to “provide oversight of broadband outages.” The FCC claims a Title II reclassification will “bolster its ability to require [telecommunications] companies to address internet outages.” In reality, this means bullying internet service providers (ISP) for issues that may be outside of their control. The FCC provides no rationalization for why an ISP would decline to attempt to restore service during an outage. The announcement also claims Title II regulations will “boost
security of broadband networks.” The Commission laments its present inability to direct foreign-owned companies “to discontinue any domestic or international broadband services.” This subjective designation could limit competition, which would slow the growth of broadband access in America and dissuade competitors from investing in American broadband infrastructure, knowing the FCC could (on a whim) dismiss certain companies.

Lastly, the Commission claims this new order is essential to create a national standard. Without it, they say, states will create a patchwork of regulatory standards. While it is true that this regulation of fundamentally interstate commerce needs to be accomplished at the federal level, the FCC’s claims reflect a misunderstanding of recent case law. To claim the courts allowed states to promulgate their own regulations that conflict with the Restoring Internet Freedom Order is false. While the D.C. Circuit Court, in Mozilla v. FCC (2019), rejected prima facie federal pre-emption of state net neutrality regulations, the FCC can pre-empt any state regulation that directly conflicts with the current Title I classification on a case-by-case basis. The door is not, in fact, wide open for myriad conflicting state regulations. This new order amounts to a massive power grab for the FCC. Thankfully, the American public has the benefit of hindsight in this case since this is not the first time this
has been tried. No one need wonder how it will go. The results will be mass uncertainty, lower investment, and missed innovation. The results may even be magnified, as the scope of the FCC’s power grab, in this instance, is much broader. This should be stopped before it can begin again.

Blogs:

Tuesday: What You Should Be Reading: March 2024 ([link removed])

Wednesday: Consumer Watchdog Group Reacts to FCC Plan to Reinstate Title II Internet Regulations ([link removed])

Thursday: Unpacking the FCC's Latest Net Neutrality Order ([link removed])

Friday: The Wrong Way To Fight the Democrats’ Electric Vehicle Push ([link removed])

Media:

March 22, 2024: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) quoted TPA in their article, “Controversial budget bill proposes hefty auto-related tax and fee hikes in Maryland.”

March 22, 2024: FloridaDaily.com ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Cutting Waste On Telecommunications Services.”

March 22, 2024: Filtermag.org ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Heated Tobacco Products Can Help the US Make Smoking Obsolete.”

March 23, 2024: WJLA ABC7 (Washington, D.C.) quoted TPA in their story about transportation spending.

March 25, 2024: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the excessive salary of the Baltimore City school superintendent.

March 25, 2024: Inside Sources ran TPA’s op-ed, “Biden’s Latest Plan to Control Drug Pricing Threatens America’s Economic Prowess.”

March 25, 2024: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) quoted TPA in their story, “'Not on taxpayer time': Questions unanswered about departure of Balt. Co. Health Officer.”

March 26, 2024: KMBC 9 News (Kansas City, Mo.) mentioned TPA in their story about stadium subsidies.

March 26, 2024: The Kansas City Channel (Kansas City, Mo.) mentioned TPA in their story, “'Better deal for the people': KC Tenants group holds forum on stadium sales tax election.”

March 27, 2024: The Herald (New Britain, Connecticut) mentioned TPA in their article, “Plan to control dmg pricing threatens economic prowess; Opinion.”

March 27, 2024: Townhall.com ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Failing GONs Show Why Government Should Stay Out of the Broadband Business.”

March 27, 2024: The Grand Forks Herald ran TPA’s op-ed, “Plan to control drug pricing threatens America’s economic prowess.”

March 28, 2024: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the cost overruns with the Purple Line.

March 28, 2024: FloridaDaily.com ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “FOIA Records Show FDA Flunking Food Safety.”

March 28, 2024: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about the EPA’s new carbon emission rules.

March 29, 2024: Real Clear Markets ran TPA’s op-ed, “The Wrong Way To Fight the Democrats' Electric Vehicle Push.”

March 30, 2024: The Detroit News (Detroit, Mich.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “Biden drug pricing plan threatens America's economic prowess.”

April 1, 2024: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about the new Director of the Department of Pubic Works.

April 1, 2024: The New York Post (New York, N.Y.) mentioned TPA in their story, “US senator accused of cozy ties to Apple after leading charge against congressional stock trading.”

April 1, 2024: I appeared on The David Webb Show (Nationally Syndicated) to discuss gas prices, the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, and inflation.

April 2, 2024: The Missouri Times ran TPA’s op-ed, “Hawley’s Credit Card Folly Will Hurt St. Louis.”

April 3, 2024: The Washington Examiner (Washington, D.C.) ran TPA’s op-ed, “The White House’s subsidy-heavy housing plan could worsen the housing crisis.”

April 4, 2024: WBFF Fox45 (Baltimore, Md.) interviewed me about Mayor Scott’s preliminary 2025 budget.

April 4, 2024: I appeared on WBOB 600 AM (Jacksonville, Fla.) to talk about inflation and government regulation.

April 4, 2024: Townhall.com ([link removed]) ran TPA’s op-ed, “FDA Ending Not-So-Sweet Cherry Pie Regulations.”

April 5, 2024: Real Clear Markets ran TPA's op-ed, "The FTC's Investigation of Reddit Underscores a Scattered, Wrathful Khan."

Have a great weekend!

Best,

David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
1101 14th Street, NW
Suite 1120
Washington, D.C. xxxxxx

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