During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s core promise to his voters was that he would build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico—and Mexico would pay for it. Now, Trump has forced the government to shut down for four weeks and counting, forcing 800,000 federal employees to go without pay, because he demands that the U.S. taxpayer fork over $5.7 billion for the wall.
But an Arizona state lawmaker on Friday says she has a better idea—make online porn users pay for the wall. According to a report by The Arizona Republic, state rep Gail Griffin has introduced a new bill that would force internet users to cough up $20 just for the ability to access adult sites online.
“The money would go into a newly created account called the John McCain Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Fund, with the proceeds to be used for one of 10 things,” The Republic reported.
But the top item on the list of 10 is: “Build a border wall between Mexico and this state or fund border security.”
The “tax” would work by requiring makers of internet devices—computers, smartphones and so on—sold in Arizona to pre-load software that somehow blocks access to all porn sites, according to The Arizona Mirror news site.
Users could unblock the sites—by paying a $20 fee that would go into the proposed John McCain Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Fund.
The idea of requiring porn sites to be blocked with users paying an unblocking fee is not anything new. As The Mirror reported, six other states have at least considered similar laws. However, “the border wall twist is new,” Free Speech Coalition spokesperson Mike Stabile told the site.
Stabile did not seem overly worried that Arizona’s porn users would soon be forced to fund Trump’s dreamed-of border wall, however. The proposed porn tax is “pretty clearly unconstitutional,” he told The Mirror.
Photo © Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
