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Taxpayers Should Not Bail Out the Barons of Wall Street

Date: Sept. 24, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Finance and Banking Government Budget and Spending


TAXPAYERS SHOULD NOT BAIL OUT THE BARONS OF WALL STREET -- (House of Representatives - September 24, 2008)

Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, the American taxpayers should not be asked to bail out the barons of Wall Street, Henry Paulson's best friends.

Plain and simple, Wall Street should pay for itself. There is ample precedent. This country assessed a securities transfer fee in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, and from 1914 until 1966. A modest fee, one-quarter of one percent, the same fee assessed on the London Exchange, would raise $150 billion a year from stock trades and commodity trades on Wall Street, which could more than pay for the bailout. That is, Wall Street can pay for its own excess and can pay to bail itself out.

Main Street should not get stuck with the bill for the huge party that was thrown on Wall Street.


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