So Obama didn’t take my advice from yesterday, and he’s going with new taxes to try an make the economic situation better. His idea is simple: a $90 billion, 10-year tax on banks. To which I can only say: are you kidding me?
Mr. President, are you telling me that you want to tax the banks after 2 years of the worst conditions ever, where they were watching each other go down left and right, had to get bailed out by the government, and are even now still losing money on things like bank mortgage deals and a lack of small business borrowing? The interest rate is as low as anyone will let it be (and will be for a while), and you want to go and tax the liabilities that the biggest banks have? I don’t think that’s a good call. They say it’s to regain some of the money they spent on the bailout. I don’t understand- the bailout is money given away. What else does the U.S. do but give money for projects- there is no precedent for trying to get money back.
"We need to impose a fee on the banks that were the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayer assistance at the height of our financial crisis -- so we can recover every dime of taxpayer money," said Obama.
Recover every dime of taxpayer money? Obama, you’re focusing on the wrong thing here. Move forward, buddy. The bailout is over and people are upset about something else, not about the banks anymore. Get them jobs and clean up the Gulf oil spill, then just pass some laws to make sure the financial crisis doesn’t happen again anytime soon. You don’t need to tax the banks while they try to recover in one of the worst economies in decades.
"I hope we can build on the progress we made at last year's G20 summits by coordinating our global financial reform efforts to make sure a crisis like the one from which we are still recovering never happens again," said Obama.
Now that’s the thing to say, Mr. President. I want you to stick with that line of thinking. Get out of the way of the financial institutions and give them incentives, not tax them. You need to be Republican on this one. The G20 will back you.
Banks have paid back the TARP money, they don’t need to be punished just for being what they are.
I continue to believe that tax credits are what is going to help people, including banks, right now. It doesn’t do the banks any good to have the Fed giving them a small interest rate, then turn around and have the earnings they make be taxed by the Federal government- I mean, guys, let’s look at this from the perspective of the rest of the world: The U.S. is the financial standard (with the dollar) and we are in the process of rebuilding our economy to stay that way- would you be happier if the banks were making money or if they were paying the U.S. government a new tax? My point.
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