by Edwin Feulner

About the author: Edwin Feulner is president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank in Washington, D.C.

I’ve studied government policy for more than 30 years, and if I know one thing, it’s this: Lawmakers will tax just about anything.

From pets to pornography, examples run the gamut. The federal government taxes unemployment benefits. The burial fees in many local jurisdictions include a “cadaver fee.” In Los Angeles County, politicians want a local electronics company to pay a property tax on the satellites they’ve launched—ones now floating some 22,000 miles above the Earth.

So I’m not surprised to learn that 40 of the nation’s governors are urging Congress to allow them to tax Internet...