VOA标准英语2011--Nurses, Unions Propose Wall Street Tax

Nurses, Unions Propose Wall Street Tax

National Nurses United, a 165,000 member union, is leading organized labor¹ in the United States in a challenge to Wall Street, its practices, and what the nurses call Wall Street's sway over politicians. The nurses want a new tax on almost all financial transactions to support U.S. health care. History and practice, however, are not on their side.
The nurses came from across the United States to Wall Street to lead a national organized labor movement against what they consider the inequities of Wall Street traders and banks. They are advocating a new fee on financial transactions that they say should be used for health care, jobs, national infrastructure² and education.
National Nurses United Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro says such a tax could raise $350 billion - money, she says, belongs to the people.
"This is a revolution to steal unfortunately, it is a revolution to steal all of our money and we are taking it back," said DeMoro. "Americans are tired of paying taxes while Wall Street gets billions and billions and billions of dollars."
One of the nurses union co-directors, Deborah Burger, says it is time to share.
"Wall Street gets the message it is time for shared sacrifice. They have not had any of that. They have been making billions and trillions of profit and not given anything back to our communities," Burger said.
Why are the nurses taking the lead in this transaction tax proposal? Diane Brady, senior editor of the magazine Bloomberg-Businessweek, has written about the nurses' movement.
"The reason the nurses are out there at the forefront is, number one, they have been very active since the whole health care debate has come up, but also a lot of other unions have been discredited," Brady explained. "There is a nursing shortage, so they are in a position of strength. They are not really vulnerable from a job perspective."
Brady says Sweden and Japan had to ditch such a tax after a few years. She says the reality is that financial products more than any other products in the world are mobile, so if you add a tax in one jurisdiction³ all the trades will go somewhere else.
New York University business and economics professor Joe Foudy says such a proposal has also come up in Congress during the past two years, but it is dead in the water.
"A tax hike like this would only work if it were instituted at a global level," Foudy noted⁴. "If we tried to do it nationally, your biggest, greatest fear, not only would firms try to game the system, but even worse, they would try to move those transactions and with it some of those jobs abroad and so you would end up losing the tax revenues you do get from Wall Street, you would lose even more regulatory control because the same transactions would take place just in other countries with even weaker regulations."
Foudy adds there is a huge disconnect between the culture of Wall Street and the rest of the country. The rest of the country looks at Wall Street as having helped to create the financial crisis in the United States, while people on Wall Street view this as, "It was someone who had my job four years ago and it is not my problem." And he believes there will be rising popular anger as long as the disconnect is there.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

3 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。