George Goehl
Apparently, the United States government has been eavesdropping on 35 world leaders. Too bad we didn’t learn what most of those nations — and the rest of the developed world — already figured out: that we can end the revenue crisis in America by taxing Wall Street.We simply do not have the federal resources needed to spur the kinds of investments it will take to rebuild communities and put people back to work. So we need more money. And there’s money to be found. Not in grandma’s pension or grandpa’s Medicare, not in our children’s classrooms, and not in programs that protect the poorest among us. The money is on Wall Street.
Legislation introduced in Congress would institute a 0.5 percent tax on stocks, a 0.1 percent tax on bonds and a 0.005 percent levy on derivatives and currency. That’s literally fractions of costs to Wall Street, but these small taxes would raise approximately $350 billion annually. And 40 nations — including Singapore, Hong Kong and the U.K. — already have such a tax. Instituting this basic tax in the United States wouldn’t hurt Wall Street but would simply bring our policies into line with the rest of the global economy.
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