Yes compromise on the tax cuts.

[Skink]

they'll all be kept with one small addition.A small temporary transaction tax until 2021 :)

After that we'll have our fiscal house in order.

[bluestateguy]

1. How would that work?

Taxes levied to take effect years down the road are often not implemented.

Do you think the tax on high-end health insurance plans will be implemented in 2018? I don't.

[Skink]

3. If keeping these tax cuts is urgent then I'm sure the transaction tax would take effect right away.

that is if we add the temporary tansaction tax to the tax cuts. A transaction tax is a tax on stocks and or wall street.

[librechik]

2. do you mean on stock transactions?

I'm in favor of a 1 cent tax on transactions. That would pay for universal single payer health care right there. I think internet taxes might be uncollectible, but I'm not opposed to a 1 cent per transaction federal tax on those as well.

[FBaggins]

4. One cent or one percent?

There's no way that a penny/transaction pays for universal single payer.

And there's no way that one percent would ever pass (or even come close)... though it would pay for far more than just HCR.

[librechik]

5. 1 cent--I have heard 1/2 cent proposed seriously

but I don't think it's enough. The NYSE trades $153B per day so I think it would help.

[FBaggins]

6. Then you're not raising nearly enough.

The NYSE trades $153B per day

Sure... but the average transaction size (if you ignore high-frequency trading) is over $20,000 (and over $5,000 even if you include it).

That's less than $80 million per year even with optimistic assumptions. Such a program would cost more than that just in administrative and regulatory costs.

IOW, the actual proposal is not a penny per transaction... it's a one percent tax. And there isn't a chance in he11 of getting even half of the Democrats to vote for such a plan. Probably not even fifty who are willing to put their name on it.

[librechik]

7. maybe the proposal is .5 per share traded.

that would be better.

[FBaggins]

8. That gets you to more like $25 million per day.

That's five or six billion per year.

Assuming people don't change their behavior... which they certainly would... like reverse stock splits that raise average share price without changing net equity.

So the program makes enough to fund itself... but doesn't make a dent in HCR.

Sorry.