From a WSJ article:
Two bills were introduced in December that would create a transaction tax. The bills would impose a tax of 0.25 percentage point on trades of more than $100,000, or $250 on a $100,000 transaction. The AFL-CIO is seeking a tax that would be a small fraction of that amount. The AFL-CIO proposal would be aimed at taxing investors and institutions that make numerous securities trades and would aim to shield average investors by exempting the first $100,000 in transactions and certain funds.
The tax would, under an AFL-CIO proposal, go toward creating jobs in infrastructure, such as road building. Much more of the revenue would go toward paying down our record deficits. How does the supposedly-Democratic White House respond? Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rejects the proposal. The pro-corporate Chamber of Commerce says levying more taxes isn’t conducive to job creation.
How many jobs has Wall St. created in the past two years? Enough to offset the 8 million newly unemployed Americans? No? Nope – Wall St. hasn’t created thousands, let alone millions of jobs.
How much of the deficit has Wall St. paid off in the past two years? Any of it? None of it? That’s correct: none of it.
Yet Wall St., especially the biggest banks, caused the Great Recession by turning their businesses into unregulated casinos. Those same corporations were bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars. Those same corporations are sitting on billions upon billions of dollars, searching desperately for places to invest it so they can make even more billions in profit. Meanwhile, unemployment remains near 10%, our economy has barely bottomed out in the Recession and Wall St. rejects out of hand every common sense proposal made. Anything that interrupts their record profit-making will be met with their disapproval.
The only question left is why is Treasury Secretary Geithner listening more to Wall St. than he is to Main St.? His stance becomes more clear when you realize he came from Wall St. to the White House.
Cross-posted at SquareState.
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