Instead of Paul Ryan’s ‘Robin Hood in Reverse,’ Why Not a Robin Hood Tax? [View all]

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/176889/instead-paul-ryans-robin-hood-reverse-why-not-robin-hood-tax

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This is a vital intervention in a debate that needs a fresh idea.

“With the latest Congressional super committee on budget deliberations about to meet in the aftermath of the brinkmanship over federal funding, a change in tone is needed in Washington,”says Karen Higgins, RN, an NNU co-president. “We are calling on Congress and the White House to refocus on a human needs budget, not just an endless cycle of more austerity and more cuts. We need the Robin Hood tax.”

Arguing for a Financial Transactions Tax does not only have the potential to shift the character of the budget conference committee deliberations. It could move the broader debate beyond the empty wrangling that pits Ryan’s austerity agenda against the austerity-lite response of too many Democrats.

“It’s far past time that we break this cycle and fund America. There is a simple solution: more revenue,” explains National People’s Action executive director George Goehl. “If the government had more money we could break the crisis fever that is killing our economic recovery and devastating most those who can afford it least.”

Goehl and NPA are making the case that a Robin Hood Tax could break the austerity cycle with “a tax of half of a percent or less on big Wall Street transactions [that] would not affect the retirement accounts for middle class and working families. The Robin Hood Tax could generate up to $350 billion each year for investments in America—health care, fighting HIV/AIDS, jobs, safety net, fighting climate change, and affordable housing.”