ClampIt:Current events

Still think a 5% tax is just a pittance?
Democrats propose a Three Tenths of One Percent Tax on Wall Street trading.

Sens. Tom Harkin and Sheldon Whitehouse have what they say is "... a better idea, a so-called a Wall Street speculation tax. The burden on traders would be minimal -- just three pennies on every $100 traded, or 0.03 percent." Unfortunately, they don't agree to any tax limitation and prefer "All of the above" and retain the income tax as well as state and local taxes.

This is a gross receipts tax on Wall Street of just 3/10ths of one percent. They claim it would raise $352 billion over 10 years, or one-third of what the sequester will cut.

ClampIt proposes a default 1USATax of five percent, but ClampIt requires that all other taxes be eliminated and that one and only one tax may be levied on any transaction. The Democrats don't have the limitation, just a starting point, in addition to income, wage, excise, state, local and whatever taxes now exist. The income tax, if you recall, started out with a one percent tax on just the richest in 1913. The Democrats claim this will end up "... creating and saving jobs, and putting the burden where it belongs -- on those who created our economic problems, profited most from taxpayer bailouts, and continue to profit today..."

ClampIt would raise 5.8 Trillion in One Year from Wall Street The default 1USATax of ClampIt would be five percent, not 3/10ths of one percent. It would raise $58 trillion over ten years, a bit more than what the Democrats propose. With the same assumptions, ClampIt would raise from stock trades $5.8 trillion from Wall Street trades in one year. Bear in mind, this is only Wall Street. This is still less than what used to be charged as a brokerage fee of 10 percent that used to be prevalent before discount stock brokers.

The fact is that the privileged have bribed our legislatures over the years to make sure their speculation is tax free. But such disparity is bad for Wall Street because they still think they can continue to soak the working middle class with inequitable taxation. What they get instead is a perpetual add on of taxes, with no limitation,

As is usually the case in DC, the roadblock isn’t public opinion -- 81 percent of Americans support a tax on trading. What we need are bold leaders to take on the corporatist lobby, and a grassroots army to have their backs. The Democrats want to spend this within the Beltway of Washington D. C., pay nothing for social security or traumatic health care and continue all taxes, just add another.