Obama Wants a Wall Street Recovery Tax

President Barack Obama wants to slap a new tax on the country’s largest financial institutions in an ostensible attempt to “recover every single dime” given away in 2008’s Wall Street bailout. The tax was met with predictable fat-cat jeers, despite the fact that the industry has largely recovered from the crisis.

As Wall Street fortified its defenses to fight the tax, Obama delivered a sharp rebuke: “Instead of sending a phalanx of lobbyists to fight this proposal or employing an army of lawyers and accountants to help evade the fee, I suggest you might want to consider simply meeting your responsibilities.” –JCL

The New York Times:

President Obama on Thursday called for collecting a new tax for at least a decade on about 50 of the largest financial institutions, saying he wants “to recover every single dime the American people are owed” for the bailout of Wall Street.

Flanked by his economic advisers at the White House, Mr. Obama spoke in some his harshest language to date against the resurgent financial industry.

“We’re already hearing a hew and cry from Wall Street suggesting that this proposed fee is not only unwelcome but unfair, that by some twisted logic it is more appropriate for the American people to bear the cost of the bailout rather than the industry that benefited from it, even though these executives are out there giving themselves huge bonuses.”

Mr. Obama continued, “What I say to these executives is this: Instead of sending a phalanx of lobbyists to fight this proposal or employing an army of lawyers and accountants to help evade the fee, I suggest you might want to consider simply meeting your responsibilities.”

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