Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has said that none of her tax-increase plans would hit average people, pledging not to “raise taxes on the middle class by one penny.” Yet Warren and several other presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, are pushing a financial transactions tax that would cost everyday people saving for the future. This plan is a retirement tax that would affect millions of middle-class people.
Proponents of the financial transactions tax argue it is “tiny tax” that would only hit rich Wall Street speculators. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A financial transactions tax would hit every single person who saves and invests in a mutual fund, a retirement account, a college savings fund, or a pension plan.