I have never seen such ignorance. The nurses can be excused, but Congressman Baca should be excused out of office. Financial transaction taxes destroy jobs and retirement accounts.
All forms of investments that did not remotely play a role in creating the crisis will be taxed. Debtors, defaulters and lenders are bailed out and investors, savers and the traders and exchanges that support them are scapegoated.
The tax will cause competition to decrease and the bid-ask spread and broker fees to increase. Even if individuals are exempt from paying the actual tax, the reduced liquidity that the tax creates will increase the cost of purchasing stock 8 times greater than the proposed tax rate. The increased spread, increased fees, etc., will cost 2 to 3 percent yield loss every year. Using a financial calculator, over a working lifetime, a person's retirement account will be reduced by a minimum of one half in a best case scenario.
The Canadian government and The Independent Budget Office of New York City have conducted extensive research and find financial transaction taxes to cause net negative revenue, and substantial economic and job losses. A real world example would be Sweden's experiment with a short-lived, broad-based and comprehensive transaction tax. Government bonds for example had a rate of only 0.03 percent. The government could not sell bonds to raise revenue. Businesses could not raise capital to create jobs. Jobs were lost and the economy faltered.

It isn't the "nurses" but the nursing union's leadership that has it so wrong. Same goes for teachers. We adore teachers and what they contribute to our society, but the teacher union leaders??? They are not representing their membership in the best interest of either their membership, the education industry and certainly not Americans in general. Note: If Obamacare really does come to pass, everybody may be "covered" but "access" to medical care will be greatly reduced. Just ask private doctors, not AMA leaders, not HMO doctors who work for a salary and don't have to pay for their own malpractice insurance. Ask private doctors what they think about Obamacare. Many already don't accept new Medicare patients and Obamacare will reduce payments to doctors and hospitals, thus further reducing the access to medical care. Just because you will have a piece of paper that says you have healthcare coverage won't mean you will be able to see a doctor in a timely manner.

Here's a good example of why the nurses are right on target:

Despite the fact that the banks received billions in bail-out funds, they've done little or nothing to help people whose mortgages are upside-dow­n and have made it more difficult than ever to obtain a mortgage loan,.

Here's a real jobs plan: Make the banks use this taxpayer money to alter their current mortgages to reflect the current value of homes. This would save homeowners hundreds of dollars a month in mortgage payments. The homeowners would spend this money. More spending would mean more new jobs.

Middle class America bailed out these very corporations that were about to "go under" to save jobs and still there are no jobs. Many of us used to believe in the ideology that big business and wall street shouldn't be excessively taxed because this would hurt jobs, however, seeing that these mega corps continue to reap huge profits and we still see no jobs, it hard to continue to subscribe to the theory. The fact is that mega corps are actually paying little or nothing in taxes and they are receiving refundable credits into their coffers. Exxon mobile - $19 billion in 2009 profits, $156 million tax rebate and paid no federal taxes. Bank of America $4.4 billion profits, $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS. Chevron $10 billion in profits and a $19 million IRS refund. Greed has taken hold, no one is asking what they can do for their country. The budget should not be balanced on the backs of the poor and the disappearing middle class.

What we have in America is corporate socialism, publicize the losses, and privatize the profits. I was not in favor of bailing out the banks, because these are the same people, who complain about big government, but when things go belly up they want the government to bail them out.

And by the way the bank bail out took place under Bush. They got bailed out and now have refused to lend the money out. Corporate America is flush with cash because they have figured out how to get 5 people to do the work of 10.

Joe Baca is worthless, he is a master of deception,hiding behind humanitarian issues to promote his own agenda and the agendas of his supporters. When will the mexican people see Baca for what he really is,a sell out!

Victor --

Good question. Americans are learning, growing, becoming more educated about our political leaders, what their idiologies are and which work and which don't work so well. In shows in changing voting patterns, polls and everyday conversations. Americans just don't accept the sound bites they hear and read in the media and even on social media sites, including the Patch. Americans are checking things out, becoming more informed, and it is showing. Keep up your posts. More and more people are paying attention.