Who Doesn't Want Prosperity For All?

Everybody who doesn't sign on to Rep. Keith Ellison's Inclusive Prosperity Act.

Down with Tyranny:

Instead of waiting for Obama and Boehner to cobble together some "Grand Bargain" on November 7, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Keith Ellison decided to give them a headstart with some commonsense legislation that just about everyone in the country-- other than hedge-fund managers and Rush Limbaugh-- would probably embrace. This week Ellison introduced H.R. 6411, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, "to impose a tax on certain trading transactions to strengthen our financial security, expand opportunity, and stop shrinking the middle class." So far there are 8 co-sponsors, John Conyers (D-MI), Bob Filner (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Pete Stark (D-CA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Jim McDermott (D-WA), all House Members who put the interests of working families above the interests of the corporate campaign donors who make the wheels in DC-- both sides of the aisle-- go round and round.

Ellison, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, points out that the bill, if passed without tampering by lobbyists, will "raise billions to invest in our economy by taxing highly speculative financial transactions." It would tax the sale of stocks, bonds and derivatives sold by Wall Street firms. The tax imposed will be 0.5 percent on stocks, 0.1 percent on bonds, and 0.005 percent on derivatives or other investments.

He explained that “the American public provided hundreds of billions to bailout Wall Street during the global fiscal crisis yet bore the brunt of the crisis with lost jobs and reduced household wealth. This is a phenomenally wealthy nation, yet our tax and regulatory system allowed the financial titans to amass great riches while impoverishing the systems that enable inclusive prosperity. A financial transaction tax protects our financial markets from speculation and provides the revenue needed to invest in the education, health and communities of the American people.”

The small tax is meant to discourage unsafe speculation and gambling-- rather than real investing-- by Wall Street firms. It would make high frequency trading less profitable, which could reduce the excess speculation on commodities like food and gasoline that has caused their prices to escalate, sometimes irrationally-- and much to the disadvantage of consumers. Almost 30 nations have some form of a financial transaction tax and the U.S. had a similar tax from 1914 until 1966. The UK has had a tax on stock trades for decades-- the same rate proposed in HR 6411-- and their volume of trading has grown robustly. Supporters of a form of financial transactions tax include business leaders such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban, and Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffet.

There is no need for any budget cuts at all - not in defense, not in social programs, not even in subsidies to Big Ag and Big Oil, and sure as hell not in Social Security and Medicare. All the money we need is sitting in the offshore accounts of the parasitic rich, who have been stealing it from the rest of us for thirty years.

It's our money. They stole it. Let's go get it back.