Obama's Creative Stealth Taxation

By Douglas Lang

One of the more creative ways in which Americans are proposed to pay for the government's lavish spending habits has been revealed by Reuters. The proposed "Spectrum user license fee" on p132 of President Obama's budget would see cellular phone operators paying an annual levy for using certain bands of radio wavelength; despite operators already spending billions at FCC auctions for access to these frequencies. The fees will start at $50million for 2009, rising progressively to $550million per annum in 2013.

This license fee will naturally be passed on to the operator's customers should the budget be passed and in effect creating a stealth taxation of each citizen for their use of radio airwaves - an entity which is organically property of every American citizen.