Washington to Start Taxing Securities Transactions?

By: Tony_Sagami

Our budget deficit is skyrocketing, and it is only going to get bigger.

The Obama administration is ready to unleash another zillion-dollar stimulus plan. Oh, they won’t call it a stimulus plan, but make no mistake … a whole lot of taxpayer money is going to get spent (and borrowed).

While it is unclear what the ultimate outcome will be of the administration’s health care reform, there is no question that it will cost BILLIONS … if not TRILLIONS.

Nobel Peace Prize or not, it now appears that we are going to expand the war against terrorism by sending as many as 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

Our politicians will find some way to downplay the cost of those programs, but no matter what they tell us, their behind-the-scenes actions reveal an urgent need to bring in a lot more tax dollars to pay for their runaway spending.

With federal budget deficits soaring, policy makers and other advocates are eyeing the huge sums that could be raised as a way to cover the costs of new initiatives.

The newest idea, which appears to have overwhelming support from the Democrat majority, is to start taxing YOU for every securities trade you make. That’s right, our politicians want to tax you for trading.

One of the newest coffer-filling ideas in Washington is to start taxing securities transactions.

The Economic Policy Institute has floated the idea of a national transaction tax that would raise $100 billion to $150 billion a year. The tax, at a rate of 0.1% to 0.25% of the value of the trade, would be levied on all financial transactions, including stock trades.

“We are in a difficult time right now, so people are looking at every opportunity to gain some revenue to fund new initiatives … why don’t we use it for stimulus or especially health care?” said Representative Stephen Lynch (MA-D), a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

Unnoticed by many, the concept already has found its way into federal law. At the urging of House Democratic leaders, last year’s $700 billion financial-bailout bill contains a provision requiring the president to submit legislation to “recoup” from the financial-services industry any eventual shortfall in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he supported the legislation’s idea of recouping future losses from the industry: “I was one of the ones who suggested.”

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said it “might be interesting” if Congress ordered a study of the idea of a transactions tax. But he pointed to the problem of driving transactions to other countries: “That’s the No. 1 problem.”

Regards,

Tony

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