General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: UPDATE: If the TPP Passes Bernie Sanders Will Be the Next President of the US. And Here's Why: [View all]Sancho
(9,205 posts)our retirement funds are under attack. We have been to court to fight our horrible governor from increasing our contribution while lowering the payout.
We know that ANY increase - even small ones - will simply be passed on to the workers as more contribution or less retirement.
We also know, that once the door is open to tax transactions, there is no one to stop a crazy state legislature or Congress from raising the fee rate at any time.
We know that qualifying students does not alter the fact that colleges can charge higher tuition knowing that the new fund will pay their tuition. For example Bernie's state (Vermont) does NOT have tuition equity for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children - NY and Maryland and Florida do allow in state tuition. Which way would Bernie go - like his home state (out of state costs) or like the more progressive states? Is someone brought to the US as a child "qualified"? Not in Vermont!
We know that lawmakers can get funds based on paying for education, but then switch off to using the money for other things (like they have done with lotteries).
As long as employee contributions are housed in various funds, we will oppose taxing those funds. If any of our members are millionaires after they get their hard-earned money out, then feel free to tax their capital gains and unearned income at that point.
There will be plenty of links on this in the future (if it actually was proposed in a bill), but I'm sure unions would oppose Bernie's plan unless it had no impact on retirement funds or retirement.
Likewise, AAPR groups are already suspicious of any taxes on transactions. The idea of taking money from millionaires is fine, and so is paying for college. The idea of taxing transactions is not a good idea.