Wall Street Transaction Tax Would Raise $350 Billion

WASHINGTON -- A minuscule tax on financial transactions proposed by congressional Democrats would raise more than $350 billion over the next nine years, according to an analysis by the Joint Tax Committee, a nonpartisan congressional scorekeeping panel.

The analysis was sent Monday to the offices of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the lawmakers who proposed the tax, and provided to The Huffington Post.

The Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act would impose a tax of 0.03 percent on financial transactions, meaning that longterm investors would barely notice it, but traders who move rapidly in and out of positions would feel its sting and, the authors hope, reduce the volume of their speculation in response.

The European Union is pressing forward with a financial transaction tax, though it is encountering some resistance from the United Kingdom, the financial center of Europe.

In order to be effective, the tax would need to be implemented in most major industrial countries where trading is done.

Some believe that the global nature of the Occupy Wall Street movement will boost the chances of the transaction tax being signed into law. While the movement has been criticized for lacking specific demands, protesters have voiced their support for a "meaningful" tax being placed on Wall Street trading.

Specific solutions to economic inequality are not in short supply. What's been missing for years has been the political will to implement them.

"Occupy Wall Street has just reminded a large majority of the American people that our economy was destroyed by gambling on Wall Street. And that the people who destroyed our economy have been amply rewarded and not prosecuted," DeFazio told HuffPost.

The tax would raise $352 billion between January 2013 and December 2021. It faces stiff opposition from congressional Republicans, nearly all of whom have taken a pledge not to support new taxes, as well as ambivalence from some Democrats who rely on Wall Street cash to fund their campaigns.

 

 

Comments

[Penny capitalist]

05:19 PM on 12/21/2011

If you do the math, you can see that 1 penny tax on a hard earned dollar by the worker will get additional 10 cent revenue when the bank loans out the usual 10 to 1 phony money and another 10 cents from the borrower of that phony bank money. Who wouldn't jump at a chance to make the bankers pay off the debt they caused? Details at http://cash153.com/2011/12/20/one-percent-transaction-tax-solution/

[Charles Deihl]

10:37 PM on 11/15/2011

Humpty Dumpty sat on a Wall,Humpty Dumpty had a GREAT FALL and we the 99% had to put the pieces back together again.And carry him on our backs to help him up that wall again.And it's all gonna happen again.Plan and Simple.

[rontheking]

11:43 PM on 11/12/2011

It's ridiculously small--a pittance compared to what it could and should be...but I have no doubt the Republican'ts will shoot it down anyway, since they represent nothing if not the entitled plutocracy in all its greed, sociopathy and parasitism over the rest of us....

[DocSAR]

11:03 PM on 11/12/2011

Another tax? Instead of taxing more, how about eliminating the waste of our govts and reducing salaries and benefits of our govt officials. Taxes and surcharges on EVERYTHING from cell phones to online airline ticketing to debit cards.........such BS!

[rontheking]

11:44 PM on 11/12/2011

The BS is taxing us instead of Wall Street and the corporations...there is a difference you know....

[irvn]

06:10 PM on 11/12/2011

350 billion in 9 years?
The Obama spends that in just over a month

[rontheking]

11:46 PM on 11/12/2011

You are confused. Obama does not spend money...that is congress--you might want to go back and review your civics class....

[rcro]

06:08 PM on 11/12/2011

This country is deeply in debt. Everybody is going to have to pay more taxes. I trade stocks and would gladly pay a small transaction fee. If we don't get out financial house in order soon, our economy is going to implode. We can't keep borrowing money and spending more than we take in.

[Timma]

10:03 PM on 11/11/2011

Anyone who doesn't want this is a shill for the 1%ers - In other words all Teapubs.

[irvn]

06:12 PM on 11/12/2011

Yay .. happy to be a Tea Pub .. the Obama spends 350 billion in just over a month
Meanwhile people are starving, Obama's campaign coffer's are swelling, and you & I don't like each other

[Timma]

07:00 PM on 11/12/2011

Dream on- you'll never be one of the 1%...

[DocSAR]

11:05 PM on 11/12/2011

Aren't u tird of paying taxes on EVERYTHING ? ELIMINATE the waste by our govts instead of more taxes on things

[rontheking]

11:49 PM on 11/12/2011

The problem is we the people are getting taxed on everything, while Wall Street and the corporations are using loopholes and tax breaks every time....

[Marcia cee]

04:23 AM on 11/11/2011

Why are so many against a flat tax?

[OmegaZ]

01:49 PM on 11/12/2011

Because it hurts those who can least afford it--the poor--the most.

[rontheking]

11:50 PM on 11/12/2011

Because it favors the rich who use the commons disproportionately even as they privatize profits and socialize costs.

[justbeingshelzz]

06:46 PM on 11/10/2011

The taxes we have now is enough. It would make no sense making more taxes. This is why we're fighting duh.!

[OmegaZ]

01:51 PM on 11/12/2011

More taxes would help pay for better education so that folks like you could graduate high school and actually understand proper grammar construction.

[justbeingshelzz]

11:37 PM on 11/12/2011

Well my grammar got the message across to you so it doesn't matter. Taxes won't help because there are enough that people pay. Apparently you don't understand the whole concept of I AM THE 99%.

[Tony Rogers]

02:21 AM on 11/10/2011

.03 percent? Thats barely anything!

[rontheking]

11:52 PM on 11/12/2011

three one-hundredths of one per cent--a pittance. I call it a fig leaf....

[Brant Ra]

09:13 PM on 11/09/2011

Another tax is bad I dont care who its for. Even though I think everybody should pay a little taxes I dont think new taxes is the answer. Fairtax.org.

[Timma]

10:05 PM on 11/11/2011

Brain trust of the Tea Party!

[Mick Jaguar]

09:03 PM on 11/09/2011

They're talking about this tax raising $350 bil? Let me remind you that this is absolute chickenfeed when stacked up against multi-trillion $ bailouts. I saw a story about a secret $16 tril bailout that hasn't even been reported in the mainstream press. $350 billion? You must be joking. OK, so if the amount to be raised by this transaction tax is so paltry compared with what has been bled out of the economy, why is it being propmoted and whose interests does it really serve?

[rontheking]

11:53 PM on 11/12/2011

It's a fig leaf and the dems should be ashamed of themselves for this unfunny joke....

[mm3264]

08:43 PM on 11/09/2011

The average sales tax in the country is over 9% combining state and local. Tax Wall St at 9%. In 2010 it would have balanced the budget and cut the national deficit by $500 billion!!!

[rondohatton2012]

01:12 PM on 11/10/2011

No.

[rontheking]

11:54 PM on 11/12/2011

Yes you rich f**ker!

[imusintheevening]

02:17 PM on 11/09/2011

This is desperately needed.

Call it an unltrashort term capital gains tax.

[metaluna]

01:06 PM on 11/09/2011

Along with repealing the Bush tax cuts and reinstatement of Glass-Steagall this is an idea long overdue. It will choke high frequency computer-driven trading. An actual human will again have to analyze trades before executing them. It will also help quell the creation of exotic financial instruments that have ballooned the financial sector from its traditional 10-15% of our economy to over 40% - a bloated sector that essentially produces nothing except windfalls for the so-called masters of the universe.

[dknowles60]

02:40 PM on 11/09/2011

clinton got rid of glass steagall

[Owen ONeill]

04:52 PM on 11/09/2011

That has nothing to do with its repeal. It doesn't matter what President signed the repeal that the then Republican Congress passed...who is going to reinstate it?

[metaluna]

12:51 PM on 11/10/2011

Yes, most of us know that. It was perhaps Rubin's biggest achievement as TS