Credit Default Swaps Tax to Create Jobs?

Michigan Democrat John Conyers, the second-longest serving member in Congress, has introduced H.R. 870, “The Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act,” a bill that would put more than five million unemployed Americans to work, let citizens and local communities determine how best people should be employed, and give the long-term unemployed—people whose job skills are growing rustier by the month—the job training they need to help get back up to speed and employable.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Our deficit-obsessed media and Congress will want to know how much this is going to cost. Well, setting aside the fact that economists have explained that unemployment increases the deficit—and that spending is necessary to create jobs—consider this: H.R. 870 is completely paid for with taxes on the richest financial speculators.

The bill’s hiring and training programs would be paid for from a trust that’s funded by “a tax that taxes the purchase and selling of credit default swaps,” says Michael Darner, Conyers’ spokesperson.

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