Porn tax poetic, problematic

There's a scene in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" where Robert Redford looks at Paul Newman and says, "You keep thinkin', Butch. That's what you do best."

The line came to mind as we read the proposal by Rep. Jim Matheson to hang a 25 percent tax on all Internet pornography sites. The gut level response is "go for it." The $3 billion in revenue could help police the porn business. And today, kids need all the safeguards they can get. A more measured reaction, however, must ask if such a tax is even workable. So many of the 420 million porn sites on the Internet are secretly based in other countries or are run beneath the radar of regulators. Where would the manpower and money come from to monitor and collect from them all? And would private credit card companies really agree to collect taxes for the government?

Pornography is an epidemic today. The purveyors are diabolical. They use words like "Disney" and "Pokemon" so that search engines will bring up their sites and lure children in when young people are simply looking for innocent recreation.

Pornographers have no conscience. They are more twisted than arsonists and uglier than vandals. Something must be done. And the fact Rep. Matheson and his cohorts are willing to do something deserves a cheer. We urge the congressman to push his Internet tax ahead. But if it comes up short, we urge him to keep looking for solutions.

Yes, politics come into play in the Internet tax proposal. A cadre of Democrats — the Blue Dogs — hope to reclaim the high ground of morality and decency for a party that has been labeled, often successfully, as the party of indulgence and license. And taxing porn sites and putting the money to work battling porn sites has a poetic ring to it — like taxing the tobacco companies to help fund anti-tobacco ads.

But getting any tax from Internet providers has proven to be a can of worms the best minds have yet to untangle.

We second the sentiment behind Matheson's proposal. We applaud him — and other Blue Dogs — for thinking outside the box. We are not about to denigrate any effort to save the nation's children from degradation. And we hope, as elected officials brainstorm, even stronger suggestions will emerge to help pin down those who peddle promiscuity to children.

In short, we say: "You keep thinkin', Jim. That's what you do best."