Re: FTT/Social Security Arguments Pro and Con

What is the process going forward? I'm happy to work more on the middle class tax cut option which there seemed to be some significant support for at the end of the call. I can't do that til later today though. Does that work for you all?

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 12:33 PM Gene Sperling <gbsperling@gmail.com> wrote:

On FTT discussion. Would design so fee is on brokerage firm -- let critics explain how it is passed on to middle class as opposed to less profits for those companies that trade stocks. 

I might consider 75% of funds for Social Security but some for a small middle class tax cut for savings in 401Ks and  IRAs -- just as defense against "401K tax.

If helpful, here are some arguments for and against for polling etc. (not sure whether to use 5 or 10 basis points)

 

Arguments Against:

 

• ·      This is a 401K tax on hard working families: It could cost families who have worked hard to create a nest egg, tens of thousands of dollars.
  
• ·      It is a tax on people’s dreams: on their nest egg; on their retirement security. If you have any type of retirement, a 401K, an IRA or an Guranteed Retirement amount you can know one thing – Hillary Clinton is taxing your savings and going to mean you have less to retire on.
  
•  If you are trying to send jobs from the US to Hong Kong you could not come up with a better strategy than saying we will provide a special tax if you trade stocks on our shores
  
• ·      Hillary Clinton says it is only a tenth of a penny. Well if you need to sell $100,000 – and your investment professionals think you need to see twice a year – just twice – that is a $200 tax. That is $200 coming out of your retirement.
  
• ·      Every nation who has tried this harmful tax, meaning that has seen the value of pensions go down by 5-10%. If you have $300,000 saved, that could mean up to $30,000 less to spend in your retirement
  

 

Arguments for

• This is a clear difference: Republicans want to cut Social Security benefits and to enrich Wall Street by privatizing Social Security: I want to put a tiny fee on Wall Street to use every penny to protect and strengthen Social Security benefits for the middle class. 
• ·      Asking Wall Street Stock brokers to pay 5 tenth of a single penny – one 100^th of what you pay when you buy school suppliers for your kids – to support Social Security and middle class retirement savings.  
  
• ·      For 5 tenth of a single penny rate – we can help strengthen Social Security and give tax relief for middle class 401Ks and IRA savers.
  
• ·       My opponents say this will tax the middle class,, but this tax will be on the traders and stock brokerage companies that trade stock who can pay less bonuses instead instead of passing it on.
  
• ·       Of course my opponents are going to try to tell you that if you do the tiniest Wall Street tax, it will tank the stock market and end democracy as we know it.  Well they said that about my husbands’ plan and the stock market tripled – tripled! –under his watch. Then they said President Obama’s plan would kill us but the stock market has nearly doubled from the worst days when he came into office.
  

On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 6:41 AM, Jake Sullivan <jsullivan@hillaryclinton.com> wrote:

What I would like to do is ask HRC if she has immediate Qs, and then
ask Gene to present on social security option, Neera to present middle
class tax cut option, Gary to explain his concerns with FTT, and
Shapiro and Schmidt to offer HFT and targeted mc tax cut alternative.

We should definitely discuss design; as you know we'd done some thinking on what it would look like to offer broad-based tax relief earlier this year (e.g., doubling making work pay and policies like that). 

Defer to you and Jake, but sense when Schmidt and I talked about it yesterday is we could work off of the memo we'd been circulating on broad-based versus targeted in late August (that builds in our work throughout the year, but which we haven't shared with HRC) - and tee up that decision for her. 

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 1:25 PM, Jake Sullivan <jsullivan@hillaryclinton.com> wrote:

Would love to have you sketch out your ideal proposal.  

On Sep 12, 2015, at 1:22 PM, Neera Tanden <ntanden@gmail.com> wrote:

What is the process going forward? I'm happy to work more on the middle class tax cut option which there seemed to be some significant support for at the end of the call. I can't do that til later today though. Does that work for you all?

On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 12:33 PM Gene Sperling <gbsperling@gmail.com> wrote:

On FTT discussion. Would design so fee is on brokerage firm -- let critics explain how it is passed on to middle class as opposed to less profits for those companies that trade stocks. 

I might consider 75% of funds for Social Security but some for a small middle class tax cut for savings in 401Ks and  IRAs -- just as defense against "401K tax.

If helpful, here are some arguments for and against for polling etc. (not sure whether to use 5 or 10 basis points)

 

Arguments Against:

 

• ·      This is a 401K tax on hard working families: It could cost families who have worked hard to create a nest egg, tens of thousands of dollars.
  
• ·      It is a tax on people’s dreams: on their nest egg; on their retirement security. If you have any type of retirement, a 401K, an IRA or an Guranteed Retirement amount you can know one thing – Hillary Clinton is taxing your savings and going to mean you have less to retire on.
  
•  If you are trying to send jobs from the US to Hong Kong you could not come up with a better strategy than saying we will provide a special tax if you trade stocks on our shores
  
• ·      Hillary Clinton says it is only a tenth of a penny. Well if you need to sell $100,000 – and your investment professionals think you need to see twice a year – just twice – that is a $200 tax. That is $200 coming out of your retirement.
  
• ·      Every nation who has tried this harmful tax, meaning that has seen the value of pensions go down by 5-10%. If you have $300,000 saved, that could mean up to $30,000 less to spend in your retirement
  

 

Arguments for

• This is a clear difference: Republicans want to cut Social Security benefits and to enrich Wall Street by privatizing Social Security: I want to put a tiny fee on Wall Street to use every penny to protect and strengthen Social Security benefits for the middle class. 
• ·      Asking Wall Street Stock brokers to pay 5 tenth of a single penny – one 100^th of what you pay when you buy school suppliers for your kids – to support Social Security and middle class retirement savings.  
  
• ·      For 5 tenth of a single penny rate – we can help strengthen Social Security and give tax relief for middle class 401Ks and IRA savers.
  
• ·       My opponents say this will tax the middle class,, but this tax will be on the traders and stock brokerage companies that trade stock who can pay less bonuses instead instead of passing it on.
  
• ·       Of course my opponents are going to try to tell you that if you do the tiniest Wall Street tax, it will tank the stock market and end democracy as we know it.  Well they said that about my husbands’ plan and the stock market tripled – tripled! –under his watch. Then they said President Obama’s plan would kill us but the stock market has nearly doubled from the worst days when he came into office.
  

On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 6:41 AM, Jake Sullivan <jsullivan@hillaryclinton.com> wrote:

What I would like to do is ask HRC if she has immediate Qs, and then
ask Gene to present on social security option, Neera to present middle
class tax cut option, Gary to explain his concerns with FTT, and
Shapiro and Schmidt to offer HFT and targeted mc tax cut alternative.

--

Michael Shapiro

Hillary for America

Policy

860-306-5849

<Tax Update Memo 08.30.15 (2).docx>