The Return of Elliott Eastman Read Free Page A

will, and we can kick them around and share some thoughts on how we might achieve them. And remember, we need not worry about the money required to execute any plan we come up with because I can secure funding.”
    “One goal near and dear to my heart is to have credit card rates set at 7%. Where did the banks gain the right to charge 18, 24, even 29%? They got that right by funneling millions of dollars into the right lobbyists’ hands. What better way to free up capital and spur the economy than relieving our fellow citizens from usurious debt? And Sallie Mae charges exorbitant rates on student loans, plunging our children into years and years of debt before their lives have even begun and leaves them facing a virtual debtors’ prison if they were to miss a payment.”
    “I back you all the way on that one, Sarge,” Rick said.
    “And why should we pay trillions of dollars a year to support over 1,100 military bases across the world? Many of those bases are in countries where the local populace despises us. We could cut that number in half and bring that money home to hire teachers, build schools and repair bridges.”
    “I’m on board for that,” one of the former army rangers in the back of the room said.
    “Now the center piece comes from a very strong belief that the hole we have dug in terms of our national debt is far too huge to be dealt with by cutting a little here and increasing some taxes there. We can adopt a Financial Transaction Fee that will be charged on all stock, commodities, futures and derivatives contracts. These types of contracts have grown enormously in recent years and are now over $703 trillion annually. We can bring this plan to fruition, and once our national debt is eliminated we can apply the almost 600 billion a year we will save in interest payments on the debt to other worthy goals. There have been proposals of this nature on many an occasion, but they have always been shot down by the government. When Europe was in dire straights back in 2011 the Europeans were pushing hard for a Financial Transaction Fee, but Treasury Secretary Tim Guttner …”
    “Don’t you mean Tim Gutless,” one of the men shouted from the back of the room.
    Elliott smiled. “Gutless would have none of it. I believe if he had stepped up, Europe might not have suffered the way it has since then.”
    James stood and said, “And for profit prisons must go. We imprison more people per capita than any other country in the world. Huge numbers of men and women enter our prison system for the smallest of crimes, turn into hardened criminals and become the huge profit engine that is our prison system.”
    “Hang on James. Let’s not get carried away,” Elliott said. “I don’t want to try for too much. Just like in Iraq, the more complicated a plan is the more room for error. We can talk about the prison system when we break up into groups in a few minutes. If you gather enough support for a sound plan, I might consider it.”
    “Fair enough,” James said and sat down.
    Elliott continued. “To achieve these worthy goals we’ll place a small transaction fee on stock trades, futures, commodities, derivatives and foreign exchange trades. Ten dollars on trades over one thousand, one hundred dollars on trades over one hundred thousand and one thousand dollars on trades over one million. I’m going to approach the people I know in Congress and the President with a proposal for a bill called the “War on the Deficit”. I’ve done the calculations. We can pay off the eighteen trillion in debt in less than seven years. But in conjunction with this approach we must achieve deficit reduction. This will be initiated by the base closures, which by conservative estimates will generate 400 to 500 billion a year in savings. And lastly, the reduction in credit card rates will generate a consumer-spending boom. Remember when President Rush, back in 2006, gave every family six hundred dollars? It didn’t do much.