When Wall Street greed crashed our economy, it blew a hole in the budget. Government revenue plummeted just as demand for services increased.
And today, even as most of us continue to deal with the fallout of the economic collapse, Wall Street firms continue to be ultra profitable thanks in part to sophisticated systems they use to buy and sell huge volumes of financial securities very rapidly.
While these systems can make Wall Street gamblers rich, the excess financial speculation also distorts the market and can cause more severe fluctuations in the price of securities.
Enough is enough. We can rein in the reckless Wall Street speculation and raise hundreds of billions of dollars a year in government revenue by imposing a small tax on financial transactions.
And this week, Congressman Keith Ellison will introduce a bill called the Inclusive Prosperity Act that would do just that.
We are joining our friends at National Nurses United and Progressive Democrats of America in supporting Congressman Ellison’s bill, which would impose a 0.5 percent sales tax on stocks and smaller amounts on the trades of bonds, derivatives and other financial instruments.
Brokers carrying out the trades would be charged the tax, unless carried out directly by investors. Households with adjusted gross incomes under $75,000 would be exempted.
The result would be hundreds of billions of dollars annually in government revenue to pay for things like education, health care and economic stimulus to get more Americans back to work.
Not only that, the financial transaction tax would help rein in Wall Street’s risky behavior by discouraging speculative, high-frequency trading.
Tell your member of Congress, Scott Peters: Tax Wall Street. Click here to automatically sign the petition
Thank you for speaking out.
Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets
“…a financial transactions tax is an idea whose time has come.” –Paul Krugman
POINT LOMA & OB DEMS 