ISP-Planet - ISP Politics - E2K

Are your online security and personal privacy important to you? Do you think federal legislators should censor the Internet? Will your business thrive or barely survive within the so-called Digital Divide? Will we have to pay taxes on goods purchased through the Internet? The answers to these questions may depend upon which candidate wins the nomination to the highest office in the land next November.

Over the next several weeks, ISP-Planet will work to bring you election coverage as it relates to the Internet industry. This week's Election 2000 Presidential Profile is of a man that is more publisher, than politician. Meet Steve Forbes, the allegiant heir to a magazine fortune and staunch conservative Republican.

Vital statistics
Malcom "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is the President and Editor in Chief of Forbes Magazine. Forbes was born on July 18, 1947 in Morristown, New Jersey. In astrological terms, he is a Cancer.

Forbes graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Princeton University in 1970 and served six years in the New Jersey National Guard. Forbes was the founding editor of Business Today, a Princeton periodical.

Forbes is a long-standing member of the Bipartisan Board for International Broadcasting, which oversees Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. He is also the chairman of Forbes Newspapers.

On a more personal note, Forbes and his wife of 27-years, Sabina, currently reside in Bedminster, New Jersey. The Forbeses have five daughters; Roberta, Sabina, Catherine, Moira, and Elizabeth.

Political roots
The son of flamboyant publisher Malcom Forbes, Steve assumed the family financial legacy when his father died in 1990. With his family fortune giving him instant political credibility, Forbes entered the GOP presidential primaries in 1996. He lost the Republican nomination to Bob Dole but has returned to race for the presidency in 2000.

Forbes possesses far more business expertise than political experience. Steve Forbes is a successful executive, international business leader and publisher. He is not a professional politician. Nonetheless, Forbes is a master of politicking. He remains fearless is his attacks on the political status quo, which means the Clinton-Gore Administration has been a frequent target of Forbes's frothing ire.

Forbes is electronically adept, and his Forbes2000.com web site is a veritable "e-Precinct" of election activity. Forbes was the first presidential candidate to sign the "E-Freedom Declaration" put together by the E-Freedom Coalition, a national partnership of conservative organizations.

Foe of Net taxes
Forbes proclaimed to the E-Freedom group that if elected to the office of president, he would support making the current ban on Internet sales taxes permanent. Forbes also pledged to reduce, if not ultimately eliminate, taxes on telecommunications services.

"The Internet is creating jobs, economic growth, prosperity, and new opportunities for all Americans," Forbes said. "Taxation of Internet sales, Internet access and telecommunications services inhibits growth and slows the spread of Internet access across America."

Forbes acknowledges the Internet as the driving force behind the current economic boom. In doing so, he believes that reduced taxation would encourage businesses to provide a nationwide level of ubiquitous access that would quickly span the "Digital Divide."

"If elected to the office of president, I will support making permanent the current ban on Internet access, sales, or use taxes, and will work to reduce and ultimately eliminate discriminatory taxation telecommunications services," Forbes added.

Forbes is a proponent of eliminating capital gains taxes, too. He reported that his famous "flat tax" plan would encourage funding for high-tech investments. A businessman at heart, Forbes said that as president, he would rein in the regulators and the litigators.

"We must accelerate deregulation in the telecommunications and financial services industries to allow technology and entrepreneurism to flourish." Forbes said. "Nothing should be allowed to suffocate America's spirit of innovation."