The Inclusive Prosperity Act, a bill that Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., introduced Wednesday, would impose a sales tax of 0.5% on broker-executed stock trades. It would also impose a smaller tax on other transactions such as bond or derivative trades.
“The American public provided hundreds of billions to bailout Wall Street during the global fiscal crisis, yet bore the brunt of the crisis with lost jobs and reduced household wealth,” said Ellison in a press release. “This is a phenomenally wealthy nation, yet our tax and regulatory system allowed the financial titans to amass great riches while impoverishing the systems that enable inclusive prosperity. A financial transaction tax protects our financial markets from speculation and provides the revenue needed to invest in the education, health and communities of the American people.”
What a tool. I work a for a large regional bank that issued a new series of preferred stock with a 7% interest rate to the federal government after receiving TARP funds. That series of preferred stock was retired after less than 3 years and the taxpayers “bore the brunt of the crisis” by only receiving 7% interest on their investment.
I guess Rep. Ellison doesn’t understand who actually pays sales tax.