Uppity nurses

Last Thusday, a group of nurses gathered for a protest outside the Gold River office of Rep. Dan Lungren, a Republican representing the 3rd Congressional District. The nurses’ next stop was the office of Republican Congressman Tom McClintock—whose 4th Congressional District office is in nearby Granite Bay.

Why did the nurses gather? To rally their congress members to support something called a “financial transaction tax.” They were among some 10,000 members of the National Nurses Union who mounted similar actions that day in 61 congressional districts as part of their Main Street Campaign.

The goal of the campaign is to urge passage of a transaction tax on the trading of stocks, bonds, derivatives, currency and credit default swaps that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for desperately needed programs.

The tax is not as far-fetched as it might seem. More than 15 nations, including the United Kingdom, have one.The problem is that most of Congress is bought and paid for by Wall Street. Getting Congress to pass a financial-transaction tax, no matter how worthwhile, will be difficult. It will happen only if the American people insist on it—and insist hard and persistently