When Congress passed TARP back in the fall of 2008, they included a provision requiring the executive branch to devise a proposal for recovering the funds. The Obama administration delivered in January, with an idea for a temporary “bank tax” that would be paid by the largest financial services firms in the country and semi-offset the implicit subsidy that they get from implicit government guarantees. It was a good idea that congress ought to push further — make the tax permanent, for example. Max Baucus says no:
The Senate Finance Committee chairman tells The Hill he doesn’t think there are 60 votes for a bank tax.
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Tuesday told The Hill that he did not believe his chamber had the 60 votes needed to include a bank tax in the financial reform bill currently being debated on the floor.
“I don’t think it has 60 votes on this bill,” he said.
I find this kind of “meta” stuff very annoying and I wish reporters wouldn’t let the Baucuses of the world get away with it so easily. 60 votes aside, does Baucus think the bank tax idea is a good one? If not, what’s his critique of it? If so, does he think it would be good to try to bring it up as a separate reconciliation bill at some point? Is there some different form of tax increase that he likes better? Or will the budget deficit vanish like magic without tax increases?