“Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act” Languishes in U.S. Congress

Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act

Congressman Peter DiFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, had introduced H.R. 4191, the Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act. This bill would asses a minuscule ¼ of one percent tax on speculative Wall Street trading and an infinitesimal two hundredth of one percent on exotic derivatives. This tax was specifically targeted at high volume speculative traders on Wall Street, and would have no impact on average investors and pension funds. Under this bill the speculation tax would be exempted or refunded from tax-favored retirement accounts, mutual funds, education savings accounts, health savings accounts, and the first $100,000 of transactions annually.

See DeFazio’a Introduction of the bill as announced in his Congressional website at DEFAZIO INTRODUCES LEGISLATION INVOKING WALL STREET ‘TRANSACTION TAX’

The bill was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on December 3, 2009 and only received the support of 25 of DeFazio’s colleagues in the House.

A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Harkin (D – Iowa). Harkin calls for tax on financial transactions, The Hill, April 16, 2010. Harkin and others argued a very small levy on short-term financial transactions would curb speculative trading and raise an estimated $100 billion annually.