Harkin/DeFazio Robin Hood Tax Would Generate $350 Billion
If Congress passed the Robin Hood/financial speculation tax, it would raise more than $350 billion between January 2013 and 2021, according to an analysis released Monday by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
The bill, formally known as the Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act, was introduced last week by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). Says Harkin:
It is hard to argue with this substantial revenue—derived from a tax of $3 on $10,000 of Wall Street trading. Our country needs every dollar possible to invest in infrastructure, job creation, the education of our children and reducing the debt among other priorities. This commonsense tax provides a viable solution.
It is estimated that the Robin Hood tax combined with the projected savings of the drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan would hit the budget deficit Super Committee goal of $1.3 trillion in savings.
Consumers Say Bye-Bye to Big Banks
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When Big Banks nickel and dime you with fees on just about everything from checking accounts to ATMs to debit cards, they turn those nickels and dimes into billions of profits.
On Saturday, consumers struck back with “Bank Transfer Day,” when they switched from behemoth banks like Bank of America (BofA), Chase and Citi to non-profit credit unions. But Saturday was just one day in what has been a steady stream of movement over the past month away from corporate banks.
It’s too early to tell how many made the switch on Saturday, but since Sept. 29, when BofA announced it would charge consumers a monthly fee for debit card purchases—that it dropped a few days ago, following public outrage—more than 650,000 people opened new accounts with credit unions, according to the Credit Union National Association. The group says its members attributed most of the upsurge to consumers fed up with bank fees and to the publicity Bank Transfer Day received.
Bank Transfer Day was the idea of 27-year-old Los Angeles art gallery owner Kristen Christian who, a month ago, started a Facebook page (now with nearly 60,000 likes) to promote the protest against Big Bank greed. She wrote:
Contact Your Senator for the 99%
Working familes in Washington, D.C., and Cannes, France (where leaders of the G-20 are meeting), rallied yesterday for passage of a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street. You can join the action by telling Wall Street it’s time to pay its fair share.
The Robin Hood (financial speculation) tax is a tiny pinch that would be felt primarily by high-volume, high-speed traders who deal in stocks, bonds, foreign currency bets, derivatives and other Wall Street financial products. Yesterday, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced just such legislation, the “Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act.”
Click here to call your senators in support of a financial speculation tax. If you complete at least one call, we’ll send you a free “I am the 99%” bumper sticker.
Rallies Call for Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street
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Taking the stage in Lafayette Park across from the White House in front of nearly 1,500 union members and Occupy D.C., supporters, a not-quite Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner look-alike vowed “Never, Never, Never” to impose a Robin Hood (or financial speculation) tax on Wall Street.
He then launched into a nearly undecipherable litany of financial jargon, before German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who supports such tax, snatched the microphone away and accused Geithner of spouting “Avant garde financial psychobabble.”
The tongue-in-cheek skit was a re-enactment of a real press conference in Cannes with Merkel, Geithner and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also supports a Robin Hood tax. It kicked off the Washington, D.C., rally in support of a financial speculation tax on banks and financial institution to create jobs and rebuild the economy that Wall Street broke. Actions also are scheduled in Los Angeles and San Francisco, too.
Earlier today, nurses from National Nurses United (NNU) held a press conference in Cannes calling for adoption of a Robin Hood tax. The leaders of the world’s top economies—known as the G-20—are meeting there and many of the G-20 leaders support such a tax, but the United States does not.
Yesterday, when a financial speculation tax was introduced in Congress, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who is Cannes for the G-20 meeting and meetings with labor leaders from those nations, said:
“Reckless Wall Street gambling has cost Americans trillions in lost wages, savings and household wealth. It is time to put Wall Street to work rebuilding Main Street with a financial speculation tax to create jobs, rein in speculation and lay the groundwork for long-term economic prosperity.”
At the Washington rally, Karen Higgins, an ICU nurse at the Boston Medical Center, who is co-president of National Nurses United, said a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street:
will put us back on the road to reclaiming Main Street….Its day has arrived.
‘Robin Hood’ Tax Bill Introduced in Congress
The day before participants at demonstrations in Washington, D.C., Cannes, France, Los Angeles and San Francisco will call on Congress and global leaders to adopt a small “Robin Hood” tax (financial speculation tax) to create jobs, bills were introduced in the U.S. House and Senate to adopt such a tax.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced the Wall Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act that would assess a financial speculation tax of .03 percent. The European Commission is proposing .10 percent, on trading in stocks and bonds. In a statement this afternoon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who is in Cannes for the G-20 summit of the world’s top economies, says:
In order to maximize revenue and minimize opportunities for tax arbitrage, Congress should pass a U.S. financial speculation tax in line with what has been proposed in Europe.
Sen. Harkin and Rep. DeFazio are showing real leadership in introducing this important legislation that would help the 99 percent. America’s most urgent economic challenge is the jobs crisis and we must invest money today to create jobs and rebuild our broken economy. In the medium to long term, that money will have to be repaid, and it is only fair to ask Wall Street to pay for rebuilding the economy it helped destroy.
At G-20 Summit, Union Leaders to Demand ‘Robin Hood’ Tax on Speculators
As world leaders head to France for the the G-20 economic summit in Cannes, labor leaders from around the globe will gather nearby to represent the needs of the world’s workers. Among their demands is a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions that would exact a nano-percentage of each financial transaction to the tune of 0.5 percent. (See video.) That’s one half of 1 percent on every bond or derivative traded, stocks sold and a host of other “financial instruments” bought and sold by the very institutions bailed out by the world’s taxpayers.
Also known as a financial speculations tax, or a financial transactions tax, the idea is catching on in the United States through the activism of unions, especially the National Nurses United (NNU), which has been joining with Occupy protesters to support the Robin Hood tax. The idea has already gained significant momentum across the pond, where British activists are using creative means, such as this video, to sell the public on the Robin Hood tax.
Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), explains it this way:
Join and Follow Nov. 3 Rallies to Make Wall St. Pay Its Fair Share
From California to Capitol Hill to Cannes, France, on Nov. 3 nurses from National Nurses United (NNU) and other union members and community activists will call on the leaders of the world’s top economies—known as the G-20—to adopt a small Robin Hood tax (financial speculation tax) to create jobs.
The Washington, D.C., action will kick off with a rally at Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, followed by a march to the U.S. Treasury Department and an afternoon of lobbying Congress. You can join in and follow the action on Twitter with the hashtag #taxwallstreet.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka also will join the Labor-20 in calling on the G-20 leaders to adopt a plan for jobs and recovery that sustains the recovery and stems the immediate jobs crisis.
In addition to the Washington, D.C., event, NNU and nurses from other nations, along with global activists will hold a press conference in Cannes calling for a financial speculation tax. Actions also are planned in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Click here for details.
Tell Wall St.: Time to Pay Back the 99 Percent
This from BanksterUSA.org .
When reckless trading on Wall Street crashed the global economy, American taxpayers bailed out the Big Banks to the tune of $4.7 trillion. That is trillion with a “T”.
Today, Wall Street is booming. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo executives are earning just as much as they did before the financial crisis. In 2010, the CEOs of these three banks made $52 million dollars combined.
Yet on Main Street family incomes are tanking, job creation has stalled, and 42 million people are living in poverty, more than at any other time in the last 50 years.
We have done our part, now it’s time for Wall Street to do more – through a tiny sales tax on each Wall Street trade called a financial speculation tax. (Click here to sign a petition telling Wall Street it’s time to start Paying US Back!) Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s How to Make Wall Street Pay for Wrecking the Economy
Three years into the nation’s brutal recession, America’s workers continue to suffer from massive joblessness, skyrocketing foreclosures and weak buying power. But Wall Street—with corporations sitting on $2 trillion in cash—hasn’t paid for its role in causing the near-collapse of the U.S. economy.
The European Union (EU) this week moved to change that, with the EU formally adopting plans for a financial speculation tax that would raise 57 billion euros a year. The tax could generate billions in revenue to help our ailing economy, stimulate job growth and discourage the reckless, high-volume/short-term profit, computer-driven Wall Street gambling that led to our current economic crisis.
While the EU proposal still needs unanimous approval from EU states, there has been no legislative movement to do the same in this country. As economist Dean Baker notes, “the intensity with which the country’s leading deficit hawks continue to ignore financial speculation taxes (FST) is getting ever more entertaining.”
Europe Passes Tax on Speculators, U.S. Should Do the Same
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Heather Slavkin, a senior legal and policy adviser for the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, reports on a victory for the global union movement.
Earlier this week, the European Parliament voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of a financial speculation tax—a tiny tax on financial speculation that can raise hundreds of billions of dollars for much-needed public services. This is a huge victory for the global labor movement, which has been at the head of a major worldwide campaign to push for the tax.
For more than a year, the AFL-CIO has been calling on policymakers in Washington, D.C., to make Wall Street pay for creating a global economic meltdown and to help put people back to work. The financial speculation tax would hit Wall Street speculators hard and could raise on the order of $100 billion to $300 billion annually—that’s real money that could be used to rebuild America, put people back to work and help state and local governments meet pressing needs.
It’s time for Washington, D.C., to follow Europe’s lead and pass a financial speculation tax in the United States.
