By Susan Harley

This year’s presidential campaign has played out like a television drama, with many twists and turns. But no matter who wins the White House or Congress, they’ll face a huge tax fight next year – when some of the 2017 tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations expire.

Part of that fight will involve closing loopholes that the super-rich use to pay lower tax rates than teachers or janitors. But let’s not forget the high rollers on Wall Street who speculate in our markets, putting everyone’s investments at risk.

One proposal that could cause a stir is a Wall Street tax – also called a financial transaction tax or FTT – on stock, bond and derivatives trades. You can think of it as a small sales tax on Wall Street trades, similar to the taxes we all pay when we buy shampoo or shoes.

My organization, Public Citizen, was one of over 100 signatories to a recent letter to Congress calling for meaningful tax reform that fairly raises revenues and creates broader economic growth.

And I would like to say that a financial transaction tax would meet all these criteria and more.

A tax of just 0.1 percent — that’s 10 cents per $100 in stocks, bonds and derivatives — would raise an estimated $752 billion over 10 years. That would be more than enough to fund free preschool, free community college and paid family and medical leave for all — combined.

In addition to being a boon for government revenues, a financial transaction tax would also be a win for tax justice, as the bulk of the taxes would be paid by the super-rich, who own and trade most of the stocks.

FTTs are a proven solution already used in many other countries to collect significant revenues from the super-rich and reinvest them in public programs for all. This is why the FTT is often referred to as the “Robin Hood tax.” In the US, it could do the same thing by reinvesting the revenues in creating a more level playing field.

Another benefit? An FTT would tame high-frequency trading, where computer programs engage in ping-pong trading on the fly, allowing them to outpace slower traders and squeeze out a tiny profit on each trade. Because of the volume of trading these firms engage in, all of those tiny gains add up to huge profits.

These high-frequency trading algorithms tend to follow each other, much like lemmings jumping off a cliff. This can have devastating effects on the market, as was the case with the 2010 Flash Crash, when a trillion dollars were lost in the U.S. markets in a matter of minutes.

Even a tiny tax on all these transactions would make computer-controlled high-frequency trading less attractive – and thus make our markets safer.

Because it is a win-win idea, many prominent voices are in favor of taxing Wall Street deals. Former Treasury Department officials such as Robert Rubin, Antonio Weiss, Kim Clausing, and Natasha Sarin support taxing financial transactions. Jared Bernstein, Chairman of the U.S. Economic Advisory Council, also supports the FTT.

Given the support of these financial giants and the fact that even some conservatives are in favor of taxing Wall Street trading, financial transaction taxes deserve a central role in the upcoming 2025 tax debate.

Susan Harley is executive director of Congress Watch at Public Citizen.