|
The
Oregon Democrat's bill would levy a 0.03 percent tax on most
financial trades, and is intended to discourage "risky trading
behaviors." DeFazio expects that will collect more than $417
billion in revenue in the next decade, which he said could be
used to fund free higher education or infrastructure repairs.
When the Democratic Party gathers in Philadelphia for its
national convention at the end of the month, it will adopt a
platform that calls for taxing trades. Many liberals in the
party embrace the proposal as a way to curb speculative trading,
which they say led to both the 2007-09 financial crisis and the
2010 stock market "flash crash."
The party's left wing, led by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who
ran against Hillary Clinton for the presidential nomination,
meanwhile, has pushed for free university education.
"Thanks to the reckless greed of Wall Street over the past few
decades, the American economy is a grossly unbalanced playing
field," said DeFazio.
"The only way we can level it is if we rein in reckless
speculative financial trading and curb near-instantaneous
high-volume trades that create instability in the stock market
and our national economy."
The legislation is supported by Democratic Party stalwarts,
including the AFL-CIO labor union federation, the Americans for
Financial Reform coalition, the Center for Economic and Policy
Research, the Communications Workers of America union, and
advocacy group Public Citizen.
It will likely not get far. Republicans control both chambers of
Congress, and most say that Wall Street regulation passed in the
aftermath of the financial crisis has been overly restrictive.
In addition, the Republican Party generally favors having fewer
taxes.
"I am opposed to any taxes that would raise the cost of
financial transactions,” said Randy Neugebauer, the Republican
chairman of a House subcommittee on financial institutions,
noting that the bill would tax stock, bond and derivatives
trades.
Currently, the top U.S. securities regulator, the Securities and
Exchange Commission, charges a tax on security futures of less
than half of a penny to recover the costs of regulating markets
and financial professionals.
The idea for the tax can be traced back to economist John
Maynard Keynes, who wrote in 1935 after another devastating
financial crisis - the Great Depression - that a transfer tax on
all transactions might mitigate speculation.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
|
