Perlmutter wants Wall Street tax to pay for health care

DENVER - A Colorado congressman is proposing a tax on Wall Street in an effort to fund health care reform.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colorado) wants to bring back an old transaction fee that used to pay for governmental services like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise roughly $100 billion per year.

"It's time for Wall Street to help pay for Main Street," Perlmutter said at the 9NEWS/Denver Post "Your Health, Your Congress, Your Voice" health care forum over the weekend. "Between 1929 and 1966, there was a tax on trades to help pay for the regulatory structure for Wall Street. It was taken off in 1966. We had to pay a ton of money last year to get Wall Street back on its feet and I think they should repay some of that."

Perlmutter wants a 0.25 percent fee on the millions of trades made every day on Wall Street. That would mean a $2.50 additional cost on every $1,000 trade.

The 7th District Democrat says there remains a 0.0013 percent fee for stock transactions that continues to finance the SEC. A larger fee was dropped in 1966 as part of the Excise Tax Reduction Act of 1965 where a number of excise taxes were eliminated after being created because of the Depression, World War II and the Korean War.

Perlmutter says he is discussing the idea with Democratic leadership in Congress for inclusion into the current health care debate.