SPOTLIGHT: Pols acting to hold line on taxing talking

In 2003, cellphone users paid an average 15 percent in state and federal taxes. Today, the national average remains at 15 percent, despite the demise in 2006 of the 3 percent federal excise tax mobile users were being charged. Why? State legislatures and the FCC have continued to bump taxes and fees, going back to the well of mobile users-now a quarter billion strong in the U.S.-again and again. Cellphone users are taxed at roughly twice the national average for other goods and services for an annual total of $21 billion. 

There's hope for some relief … albeit not much chance of a rollback. Presidential candidate John McCain last week called for a ban on new cellphone taxes. And while that may just be campaign rhetoric, a bipartisan duo in Congress is taking the first steps toward giving mobile users a break. Last week, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Chris Cannon (R-Utah) actually introduced a wireless tax moratorium bill. 

Today's Wall Street Journal has an excellent opinion piece on the issue. Check out the full version of the article.