The Hipster Travel Guide is not a political machine, really, we’re not even a machine, we’re just a collective group of travelers who love leaving the house. We are pro travel. So we oppose anything that discourages it, or worse, might make it more difficult.

And we believe the proposal to charge people $10 to register to come to America (even though they do not need a visa). Our K Street lobbiest, however, has said it’s likely the new measure is going to pass. Apparently, its heavily supported by travel industry businesses in the U.S. The U.S. Senate, in a bipartisan effort, will likely pass the bill today.

Our lobbiest was going to attempt a last ditch effort to thwart the plan, but then got cheap tickets to San Juan so headed down there for the week. We have mixed feelings: While we oppose the tourist tax, we support the last minute trip.

About 58 million people visited the U.S. last year (each spending about $4500). The new fee would mean each would spend about $4510. The money, ironically, will go to supporting efforts to draw more tourists to America. Unfortunately, many European countries have said they will start to charge Americans a small fee to come inside their borders in a squid  pro quo policy.

Geoff Freeman, a senior vice president at the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, told the Associated Press that many potential visitors don’t feel welcome in the U.S. and charging them $10 will make them feel better about visiting.

Yeah, we don’t get that either.