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According to an un-sourced story in Kotaku, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) is mulling a tax on video games.
If that's true, Sen. Clinton is in noteworthy - if not especially good - company. Advocating a game tax would align her with the likes of failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Star Locke as the only politicians in recent memory to advocate a special tariff on our favorite pastime.
As the Kotaku story tells it, the tax would go to some type of child advocacy program. Although we'd rather see some kind of attribution, Kotaku editor Brian Crecente got it right last year regarding ESA president Doug Lowenstein's secret Hillary fund-raising breakfast, so methinks his Hillary contacts have history on their side.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia Daily News columnist/blogger Will Bunch takes Hillary to task in a piece entitled Never Mind the Potholes, Hillary Continues Down the Lieberman Road.
The Lieberman headline refers to the Connecticut senator who is widely perceived by Democrats to have gotten too cozy with President Bush, especially on the the war in Iraq. The three-term incumbent faces a difficult August 8th primary in which he currently trails his opponent by five points.
Bunch's story deals with Hillary's seeming obsession with trivial issues like video games and advertising, while failing to step up on the big ones, like, say, Iraq. Bunch notes that A-list liberal blog The Daily Kos ran the results of a straw poll yesterday which showed Hillary finishing seventh, trailing, among others, Sen. Russ Feingold, Gen. Wesley Clark, "No Freakin' Clue" and "Other."
Want to talk about it? You can discuss this story via the "comments" feature (click below), or in the new GamePolitics Forums...
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July 21 2006, 19:13:27 UTC 5 years ago
July 21 2006, 19:25:12 UTC 5 years ago
Grrrrr....
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July 21 2006, 19:15:32 UTC 5 years ago
(For the record, I'm what most Americans would call far-left too, and absolutely despise Hillary. But my opinions are seldom in line with the mainstream party's. My vote in the '04 primaries was Kucinich -- and he came in, what, 7th out of 9?)
July 21 2006, 19:24:27 UTC 5 years ago
Sadly, he's not electable at that level.
July 21 2006, 19:48:00 UTC 5 years ago
Screwballing
Personally, I'm just waiting for the "use of air" tax to set in.July 21 2006, 20:18:43 UTC 5 years ago
this just proves me even more correct than before
Christopher Walken for 2008 president!July 21 2006, 22:35:00 UTC 5 years ago
Re: this just proves me even more correct than before
Will Ferrel as his running mate! They should base their campaign around tax breaks for the cowbell industry.5 years ago
July 21 2006, 20:20:45 UTC 5 years ago
And isn't there a law against using taxation power as a means of censorship? (Which is what stops a 5 million percent tax on pornography for example)
July 21 2006, 21:08:02 UTC 5 years ago
a. An approximate rate for the tax (i.e. whether it be a 1% tax or 30% tax)
or
b. whther or not this will only apply to violent or sexually explicit video games.
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July 21 2006, 20:23:11 UTC 5 years ago
I was so excited about the idea of a strong Democratic woman in the White House that other candidates would have had to work twice as hard to get my attention. Now, I'm so let down by her that I've started actively shopping around.
July 21 2006, 21:32:18 UTC 5 years ago
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July 21 2006, 20:31:01 UTC 5 years ago
July 21 2006, 21:18:23 UTC 5 years ago
-Auto
July 21 2006, 21:21:24 UTC 5 years ago
About Hillary
Hillary has always been just left of center--she was a young Republican and campaigned for Barry Goldwater. It's not surprising that she supports Liebermann so much. I think the real reason why she's reaching for an association between video games and youth violence is because she's spent so much time working with abused children and women and she's grasping at straws to find a solution. I'd vote for her over the next GOP candidate, but I hope she builds a stronger platform than this.July 23 2006, 21:50:23 UTC 5 years ago
Re: About Hillary
Hillary's "just" left of center? If you just go by her talking points, you'd think she was pretty much a moderate. If you go by her voting record the only Senators who vote more liberally both reside in Massachussetts.I honestly don't believe she'll get the nomination. She's far too polarizing, even in her own party. The only reason she's polling well is she's really the only Dem thought to be running for 2008 right now. I'm pretty sure you'll see Edwards and Kerry in the hunt again. Gore might make another run, but I don't see him as electable.
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July 21 2006, 23:34:32 UTC 5 years ago
I can't see how it is legal to put a tax on something to benefit something unrelated. The video games I buy go to ME, not kids. And I'm quite far from a minor. A tax on games NOT rated M or Adults Only would be more logical in that regard, as conceivably THOSE games could be going to kids.
GADS... It's like putting a tax on fruit rollups to benefit Red Pandas.
July 21 2006, 23:57:26 UTC 5 years ago
Heck I will be suprised if she even gets re-elected this year
July 22 2006, 01:40:08 UTC 5 years ago
bunch of thoughts rolled into one:
Hillary: Bad.Feingold/Clark in 08: Good. Very good actually.
Lieberman: We need new blood in Connecticut. I would run myself if I had loads of money to blow on campaigns, and all the free time in the world.It would probably be fun. In short though: NEXT!
Game Tax: As retarded as lawyers in Coral Gables, FL
That about covers it.
July 22 2006, 02:34:36 UTC 5 years ago
Sigh...
And to think, I was going to vote for her.July 22 2006, 02:40:56 UTC 5 years ago
July 22 2006, 03:11:24 UTC 5 years ago
July 22 2006, 09:34:06 UTC 5 years ago
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July 22 2006, 04:16:08 UTC 5 years ago
Hmm, sounds fishy.
I see this as another angle to an anti-game bill being done. If the tax goes through, it could be pushed as games being unsafe and then the bills fly up.July 22 2006, 04:40:03 UTC 5 years ago
July 22 2006, 09:34:37 UTC 5 years ago
July 22 2006, 04:44:37 UTC 5 years ago
July 22 2006, 06:27:19 UTC 5 years ago
oh lord
The sheer stupidity of this hurts my brain. Taxing video games is like taxing how much dogs shit in our public parks.July 22 2006, 10:53:04 UTC 5 years ago
Tools
Let's see:Game laws to restrict sales. Nope, not a tool.
Game laws to equate violent games with porn. Nope, no tool there.
Federal legislation to have media researched by the CDC. Nope, no tools there.
Game laws to have judges/juries decide what is or is not appropriate for for other people's children. Nope, no tools there.
Taxing video games and giving the tax to child advocacy groups. Nope, no tools there.
Ya know, with all the chatter about some parents having a hard time understanding ratings and not being able to make informed choices, I see absolutely NO tools to help EDUCATE those parents to make their own decisions. Yee talks about "harried parents", so make a law that decides FOR the parent. The NY AG talks bluntly about having the government decide FOR the parents. A recent Virginia politician talks about how he's a parent and how there should be legislation to do his job for him. NC, LA, and others using Thompson's folly... er... law to give the power of the decision to judges and/or juries to decide for parents.
Yet, time and again, there appears that sound bite "parents need the tools to make appropriate decisions...", in one form or another. So where are these tools? They certainly aren't coming from the politicians or the likes of John Bruce Thompson, as noted above.
Yet we know, KNOW, that the resources for parents to become informed exist. So where are all the tools to educate the parents about those resources? Parents can make the decision for themselves. It is their right to make decisions for their own children. Even if those decisions don't quite jibe with the beliefs of other parents or individuals. Perhaps it is THAT fact that the politicians and others intentionally don't try to make real tools to educate parents. Because it would mean parents could make informed decisions for themselves rather than be dictated to by those others. Must really get under the craw of those who want to dictate to other people that their beliefs really AREN'T the superior beliefs that they believe them to be.
Perhaps that is why we don't see the push for REAL tools to educate the lesser informed parents.
nightwng2000
July 22 2006, 14:23:01 UTC 5 years ago
Re: Tools
Good point. We could have stores like Eb (or the electronics section in Walmart, etc) keep pamphlets about the ESRB and what the ratings mean at the door to the store/section. If that isn't a tool, I don't know what is... other than playing a recorded explanations of the ratings over the store's PA system.5 years ago
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July 22 2006, 11:20:07 UTC 5 years ago
Canada is sounding better every day.
July 23 2006, 07:06:32 UTC 5 years ago
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July 22 2006, 14:31:54 UTC 5 years ago
Hillary continues to guarantee defeat in 2008
Nothing more needs to be said. Typical tax and spend liberal trying to disguise herself as a centrist.She'll choke on this tax idea.
July 23 2006, 14:17:22 UTC 5 years ago
One thing I've been noticing on this thread.
A lot of people seem to assume that no matter who the Democrats choose for the 2008 election, the Republican candidate will be worse. I shouldn't have to remind you all that Bush can't run for re-election because of term limits, nor should I have to point out that that not all Republicans are as bad as him. Who knows, maybe they'll find someone half-decent, we don't know because they don't seem to have anyone in mind at this time.July 23 2006, 15:21:08 UTC 5 years ago
Re: One thing I've been noticing on this thread.
Great point. It only takes a president as unpopular as Bush to make the Democrats seem the saviours of the world.And the GOP frontrunners are staying quiet right now, because their man is at historically low popularity. Normally, a party frontrunner would have the current President stand behind him. Who wants that stigma on a campaign in this case?
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July 25 2006, 00:25:09 UTC 5 years ago
Oh darn
She may have just lost everyone I know's vote (poor college students + video game tax!?)← Ctrl← Alt
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