Tomorrow, Sept 1, from 1:30pm to 2:30pm, there will be a rally in front of Congressman’s Mike Turner’s Office at 120 W. Third St. in Dayton, Ohio. The purpose of the rally is to urge Ohio’s 3rd district congressman to support a new tax on Wall Street.
Called “The National Day of Action to Tax Wall Street,” sixty such rallies are being organized nationwide by National Nurses United (NNU) to happen tomorrow.
The RNs are asking members of congress to sign a pledge to “support a Wall Street transaction tax that will raise sufficient revenue to make Wall Street pay for the devastation it has caused on Main Street.” The rallies follow a letter sent by certified mail to all 535 members of the House and Senate last week asking them to back the pledge and help “make the promise of the American dream… a reality.”
A news release by NNU says, “A tax on Wall Street trading of stocks, bonds, derivatives, currencies, credit default swaps, and futures – the very financial speculative activity linked to the 2008 financial meltdown and resultant recession – could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for the programs that are desperately needed to reduce the pain and suffering felt by so many families who feel abandoned in communities across this nation.”
NNU is the nation’s largest union and professional association of nurses, has convened numerous other protests in recent months joined by labor and community activists, including in Washington DC, outside the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and in New York City, across from the Stock Exchange, to advance this campaign.
“America’s nurses see every day the broad declines in health and living standards that are a direct result of patients and families struggling with lack of jobs, un-payable medical bills, hunger and homelessness. We know where to find the resources to bring them hope and real solutions,” said NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN.
“It’s time for Wall Street financiers, who created this crisis and continue to hold so much of the nation’s wealth, to start contributing to rebuild this country, and for the American people to reclaim our future,” says NNU Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.
You do understand, don’t you that “taxing wall street” is discriminatory? Why not tax all high end wage earners, like NFL and NBA players? You also do understand, don’t you, that taxing all rich people much higher rates won’t make much of a dent in our fiscal problems?
Rick, the NNU is advocating what a lot of first rate economists also advocate — a small transaction tax on the sale of stocks, etc. They have an impressive list of experts who offer their analysis that such a tax would be beneficial because it would help deter some types of speculative trading, give more stability to the market, and potentially raise as much as $150 billion each year. This is not an “income tax” on high end wage earners, but a tax on stock market transactions. The analysis I’ve read indicates that Britain has such a tax and that the European Union is moving towards such a tax. Some economists are suggesting that if such a tax could be in place, the revenue gained could be used to finance a decrease in general income taxes by as much as 10%. This idea of using the revenue gained from a transaction tax for a decrease in income tax rates, of course, is not what NNU has in mind. They want the revenue to be used to help fund such things as universal health care insurance, or to be used in other ways to generally benefit the poor and average income citizens. I am just starting to read about the matter and when I have a better understanding, I intend on writing an analysis, but, to me, the idea of a wall street transaction tax seems an idea worth exploring.
The idea of “taxing all rich people much higher rates,” that you refer to, I imagine, the NNU would also advocate, but this transaction tax is not an increase in income tax rates, as such. My own feeling is that Warren Buffet is correct in principle and tax rates on the very wealthy should be increased and, I’d go further, significantly increased. Your POV that such rate increases would not “make much of a dent in our fiscal problems” is something I’d be interested in knowing more about. On the surface, it is a claim that to me doesn’t sound reasonable. I feel I need an in-depth seminar in economic and tax theory.
The bigger point to be made is that our nation needs an economic and tax system that is more fair. The citizenry of the richest country in the world should be sharing in the wealth of the nation in practical ways — via good wages, secure jobs, a health care system, retirement system, etc. Our republic should not be satisfied that tens of millions of its citizens face a dismal economic future. The question is: What should that system look like? What is the structure of a future economy we should strive to create? More of the same doesn’t seems a reasonable answer. As a nation we need leadership that will help formulate a grand vision of the future but, leadership, right now, is sorely lacking. President Obama with his “change we can believe in,” tragically, has proven to be a fraud.
We need a movement on the left that will offer practical and good ideas. The ideas that the NNU are advocating seem piece meal and stop gap and therefore are unsatisfactory, but, right now, such inadequate answers may be our only alternative.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/a-sales-tax-on-wall-street-transactions/