Lots and lots of Republican owned, brick and mortar small business folks want online retailers to pay sales tax. They don't see it as a new tax, they see it as currently unfair that they have to collect sales tax and that online merchants don't. There is lots of pressure on Republicans from otherwise conservative small business folks to "even the playing field" when it comes to tax collection. For the record, I don't buy those arguments and will be furious if a GOP House actually goes through with this.
I think they should "know what's in it before it passes" (to channel Nancy Pelosi).
As the arguments "against" from the WSJ article and others show, these small business owners will be mighty surprised when the tax does absolutely nothing for them, except possibly destroying their and others' small brick-and-mortar shops' opportunity in online business.
It would simply limit their opportunity to compete against the big multi-state retailers.
lots of small brick and mortar people also sell product on the internet they don’t have to collect taxes on, too.
An interesting exercise would be to imagine your own personal life with absolutely no "brick and mortar" retail stores except for those that sell things with a very limited shelf life (fresh fruit, dairy products, etc.). If every durable product was sold through an Internet retailer, your life could be miserable. Imagine a UPS tractor-trailer -- not your typical brown box truck -- making its way down your street to deliver things to the entire neigbhorhood on a daily basis.