Commission: 'Robin Hood' tax would save EU countries billions

EU Observer ^ | 22.03.12 @ 17:08 | Honor Mahony

[Olog-hai]

Member states will pay 50 percent less into the general EU budget by 2020 if they agree to implement a financial transactions tax (FTT), the EU commission said Thursday (22 March).

In a last-ditch attempt to undermine government opposition to both this specific 'Robin Hood' levy and the general idea of Brussels raising taxes, EU budget commissioner Janusz Lewandowski put some concrete savings figures on the table.

By the commission's estimate, Germany would pay €10.7 billion less to the EU budget by 2020, Poland €1.8 billion, Italy €6.4 billion and Latvia €81 million. The UK, the Netherlands and Sweden—the strongest opponents of the FTT—would save €7.6 billion, €2.6 billion and €1.6 billion respectively.

By 2020, total savings would amount to €81 billion. …

But the sums did not please all. The UK was quick to release a statement saying it "completely refute(s) the suggestion" that it would benefit from an EU transactions tax.

With the budget to be agreed by the end of the year, the overall debate is beginning to heat up.

A group of nine member states has said it wants to press ahead with the FTT on its own (which would remove it from the commission's grasp) while Germany and the UK and others have said the budget should not increase beyond inflation.

But the budget negotiations contain an extra twist. The European Parliament will play a stronger role.

MEPs are keen on the financial transaction tax, keen on supporting growth policies and keen on spending more. Last year, the parliament approved a report calling for a 5 percent increase in the next multi-annual fund. …

[Olog-hai]

I wonder if this new tactic by the EU will make the liberals and the current administration label any new taxes (including this Tobin tax) "Robin Hood taxes"? Robin Hood wasn't a tax collector; Prince John was, and all of these politicians are in the place of Prince John . . . and as yet another reminder, this "financial transaction tax" is specifically designed to decimate the City of London.

[headstamp 2]

What do these countries expect when they cede their sovereignty to a bunch faceless unelected bureaucrats?

[Olog-hai]

This isn’t going to end well.

[SunkenCiv]

This will break the EU, talk about the domino theory. Thanks Olog-hai.

[Tzimisce]

Robin Hood fought against high taxes.....

[Secret Agent Man]

Every problem in the world can be fixed if we just keep taxing the rich.

And redefining “rich” downward.

And then keep taxing more.

And then when people have no money left, we can tax them for failing to stay rich, in order to evade the rich taxes.

Just keep taxing people more and more and more. They can do with less (why government can’t is still a mystery). Eventually all our problems will be fixed.

[Secret Agent Man]

This co-opting of Robin Hood somehow approving of higher taxation is exactly the same type of co-opting the left is doing with Trayvor Martin. In both cases the opposite facts are true. Robin Hood was robbing the government of excessive taxes taken and giving them back to the people. Trayvor Martin was beating the crap out of Zimmerman on the ground underneath him and Zimmerman was lucky enough to get a shot off and save his own life. Martin’s skittles and ice tea be damned.

[Olog-hai]

That all hearkens back to Churchill’s definition of socialism.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Its one inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Keep reducing to the lowest common denominator and all you’ll have is a “community” of savages.

[Olog-hai]

It won’t break the EU’s hard core, though. The members of the so-called Berlin Club appear to be ready to go their own way, even if it means creating vassals out of the other member states in earnest.

[hosepipe]

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.~Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

[Olog-hai]

Don’t expect an empire that gets Robin Hood and King John mixed up to ever heed that kind of advice . . .

[hosepipe]

Democracy is the road to socialism. -Karl Marx

Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx

[katana]

You're right, of course. The rich targets of Robin Hood and his band of Saxons were the tax collectors for King John. He was giving back to the poor peasants what had been stolen from them by the Normans. Leave it to a Belgian (or a pack of Chicago thugs) to so utterly f*** up the meaning of an Anglo Saxon legend.

[SunkenCiv]

There will be an EU, run by Germany, which will pretend to let France help run it, and Euroskeptic parties will gain support throughout the rest of Europe.