Democrats Run Amok

Democrats are anxious to raise taxes to feed their spending dreams, so the latest tax plan is a real doozey: a tax on financial transactions that could raise $100-150 billion per year. The idea is each time a stock trades, a tax is levied on the trade.

Two things will happen with such an obscene tax. Financial transactions will move offshore, destroying high-paying financial services jobs in America. And the value of U.S. companies will decrease, as investors factor into their valuations the tax liability from selling shares.

Lower stock prices reduce American's net worth for retirement and college savings and all the other reasons people save and invest, and raise the cost of capital for businesses seeking to grow - which retards economic growth.