With President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union speech Tuesday night expected to include calls for higher taxes on capital gains and closure of assorted tax breaks for the 1 percent – on the heels of the recent proposal by Representative Chris Van Hollen, the second top ranked Democrat in the House, for revenue enhancements including a version of a tax on Wall Street – it’s clear the campaign for tax justice is making traction in Washington.

At the forefront of the push for a more equitable tax system have been the Robin Hood Tax activists who have mobilized around the nation for a tax on Wall Street speculation, as embodied in the Inclusive Prosperity Act introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison, with some 28 co-sponsors.

Nurses have long been in the forefront of the call for a Robin Hood Tax.

National Nurses United, for example, that the Robin Hood Tax could generate hundreds of billions of dollars every year “to provide a critical lifeline for improving the health and safety of people in the U.S. and across the globe – from ending HIV/AIDS, to reducing the effects of the climate crisis, including the widespread health problems caused by climate change, to paying for the unfinished job of healthcare for all in the U.S.,” notes NNU Co-President Karen Higgins, RN.

While the Obama administration has yet to support the concept of the Wall Street tax – and in fact actively opposed the proposed European Financial Transaction Tax – the President’s call for those who have benefited from growing disparity of wealth to return some of that wealth for education and retirement benefits is a step forward.

An even bigger step would be active promotion of a robust tax on Wall Street – the source of the economic crisis in 2008 that put so many families and communities in crisis.

Van Hollen goes farther with his proposal, becoming the first figure in the Democratic leadership in Washington to embrace a financial transaction tax already adopted in some 40 countries around the world, including in many of the leading global markets and closest U.S. allies abroad.

It’s a clear sign that the concept of a more just tax system is gaining traction, even if neither the Van Hollen proposal nor the President’s go far enough. The Van Hollen idea, for example, does not raise nearly enough revenue, because the tax rate is too small, and is intended to provide a tax cut for middle income taxpayers when the funds are desperately needed to meet the human needs so neglected by years of austerity economics and conservative priorities.

Unfortunately, Van Hollen accepts the Republicans’ conservative premise that what working people need is a tax cut rather than government social programs that will help everyone.  A tax cut won’t repair our bridges, it won’t help clean up the environment, it won’t fund our schools, and it won’t cure the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

Rep. Ellison’s bill, on the other hand, soon to be re-introduced, would raise hundreds of billions of dollars every year for such critical needs as ending attacking mushrooming student debt, helping pay for jobs at living wages, affordable housing, a clean environment, and enhanced retirement security, as well as healthcare for all and other basic needs.

What the Obama Administration and Rep. Van Hollen proposals have in common is an emphasis on re-directing tax cuts from the rich to the rest of us. This is a treatment of the symptom, but not the cure.

The Ellison bill would spark real change for American families. By encouraging employers to share the wealth with their employees, Van Hollen's bill is a start, but the Robin Hood tax only works if it is the lever for requiring reckless speculators to pay their fair share of the cost of addressing the climate crisis, providing healthcare for all or retooling public educational system.

We in the Robin Hood Tax movement have worked hard to keep each other informed about what is the most economically just cause of our time – closing the largest, money-draining loophole in our system to provide the funds we need to rebuild America. - See more at: http://www.robinhoodtax.org/news/blog/tax-wallstreet-goes-beyond-treating-symptom