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Rick Perry on TechnologyRepublican Governor (TX) |
Perry: This whole issue of allowing cyber security to go on, we need to use all of our resources--the private sector working along with our government. To really stand up the cyber command in 2010 was a good start on that. But fighting this cyber war, I would suggest, is one of the great issues that will face the next President.
Romney: To continue to have free and open access to the thing they want so badly, our markets, they have to play by the rules. They can't hack into our computer systems and steal from our government. They can't steal from corporations. They can't take patents and designs, intellectual property, and duplicate them and counterfeit them and sell them around the world. And they also can't manipulate their currency in such a way as to make their prices well below what they otherwise would be.
PERRY: I've called for a $10,000 graduate program --
Q: But would you kill the federal student loan program?
PERRY: I don't think the federal government should be in the business of paying for programs and building up huge debt out there.
Q: So get rid of it?
PERRY:-The governors who appoint the trustees, they [could] step in and basically say, listen, you are going to have graduation rates that are moving upwards, you're going to have tuition that is moving down. You have to have control over those boards of regents, of that's how you do that, or the legislature has to have control. But the bottom line is, we have to put powerful economic forces into place. And one of those is using our technology to be able to let our kids have the opportunity to get an education through long distance learning, for instance.
A: I don't think the federal government should be involved in that type of investment, period. If states want to choose to do that, I think that's fine for states to do that.
Q: You have in Texas done that with the emerging technology fund. But your own state auditor said earlier this year that that fund is neither accountable nor transparent. And like Solyndra, some of the emerging technology fund investments have gone bust.
A: Well, first off, the Texas legislature has full oversight of that committee. Every two years the Texas legislature looks at it, and I can promise you the 54,600 jobs that have been created and the $14 billion-plus worth of investment that has come out of the Enterprise Fund in the state of Texas, those people that have jobs today in the state of Texas, they are absolutely happy that we've got a program like that
The nation’s governors have a strong and unified message to Congress: deal fairly with Main Street retailers, consumers, and local governments. In a letter sent to all members of Congress late Friday, 44 governors said:
If you care about a level playing field for Main Street retail businesses and local control of states, local governments, and schools, extend the moratorium on taxing Internet access ONLY with authorization for the states to streamline and simplify the existing sales tax system. To do otherwise perpetuates a fundamental inequity and ignores a growing problem.The current moratorium on Internet access taxes, like those consumers pay to Internet service providers, and multiple and discriminatory taxes is scheduled to expire in October. The moratorium does not apply to sales taxes.
Currently, sales and use taxes are owed on all online transactions, but states are prohibited from requiring “remote sellers” to collect and remit those levies. A 1992 US Supreme Court decision said states can only require sellers that have a physical presence in the same state as the consumer to collect so-called use taxes. In instances when a seller does not have a physical presence, consumers are required to calculate and remit the taxes owed to their home states at the end of the year. The problem is most people are unaware that they’re supposed to pay, and states lack an effective enforcement mechanism. Online and catalog sellers, thereby, have a significant price advantage over Main Street businesses that must collect a sales tax on all transactions.
The loophole creates serious budget problems for schools, states, and local governments. A study estimated that states could lose as much as $14 billion by 2004 if they are unable to collect existing taxes on Web-based sales. Nearly half of state revenues come from sales taxes.