Open thread for night owls: Robin Hood levy beats other tax options for enhancing federal revenue

At the Center for Economic Policy Research, Nicole Woo writes about the revenue impact of various tax changes:

Most Americans will never see a million, let alone billions, of dollars in their lifetimes. So it's easy to get lost among various federal budget options in the billions of dollars.

To help, here's a handy chart that shows the financial transaction tax (a.k.a. the Wall Street or Robin Hood Tax) compared to 4 other revenue options that are often mentioned in the budget debates. As you can see, the Joint Committee on Taxation's estimate of $352 billion over 9 years from the FTT swamps the other options.

This is not to say that the FTT is the end-all solution to budget deficits.  But this does support the argument that it should be seriously considered, along with the other options, when policy makers and the media discuss deficit reduction.

High Impact Posts. Top Comments.