Congress considering tax on "all data communications"

This is still a few steps away from being a reality, but the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation is floating a proposal that the 3% Federal excise tax on telecommunications, which up until now only covered regular telephone lines, be extended to include "all data communications services to end users." According to CNET, that includes broadband, dial-up, cellphones, and VoIP (that means Skype, too). No legislation has been passed or anything, and there's also some alternative proposals that would "merely" extend the tax to cover cellphone calls and/or VoIP calls (as if there weren't enough weird little taxes and regulatory fees added to cellphone bills already). Either way, sounds like the party's over!