Personally I think it's a good idea to raise the SS retirement age.
The social security system was designed when the average life expectancy was 65. You retired at 62 or 65, collected checks for a few years, then died. Now it's 85. People are living longer and collecting longer. Social Security is not going to be able to pay out full benefits in a few years.
You can't take a transaction tax and use it to fund SS. Social Security is self funded by worker and employer contributions- it's not a "tax the other guy" system. You (and your employer) pay in, you get money out (if you live long enough!).
If you want the SS program to survive, the retirement age needs to be raised to 69 or 70 then indexed to life expectancy.
Suck it up bitches!!
Money is money no matter where it comes from. The SS contributions were supposed to be in a "lockbox" to quote Al Gore. After Clinton robbed the SS trust fund all money comes from one big $4-trillion pot. SS is solvent thru 2030, after that it can only pay 70% of promised benefits...unless we make up the money with a "transaction tax" on Wall Street. The Transaction Tax has two purposes, it raises cash and also inhibits short-sellers and high frequency traders who steal our 401k money.
I'm just amazed Christie is so stupid to try and play the "suck it up bitches" card.
Nobody is stealing your 401K money by active trading or short selling. In a free market people are free to trade as much and as often as they like. At the end of the day, "active traders" make far less than regular folks who buy and hold for the long term. There is massive data to back this up. Ever heard the expression : there is no such thing as a free lunch? TINSTAAFL!! Its true. Nobody beats the market over the long term.
Simply raise the retirement age incrementally (we recently did this - from 65 to 67) and tax all earnings. We can do it gradually and systematically. Then index the retirement age to life expectancy.
Presto!! Problem solved permanently. Remember- TINSTAAFL!!