I was unaware that Mitt is a zero cap gains tax advocate. But Alan Greenspan is a zero cap gains tax advocate too, and nobody listened to him either.
Under my plan, the cap gains tax would be eliminated, but revenues to the govt from the financial markets would actually increase. I propose zero cap gains, (at least on stocks, I'm willing to leave it in place for futs, options and other derivatives), and in place of it have a per-trade fee assesed. If it's true that 90% of market particpants are losers in the market, then only 10% of the participants are paying the taxes. Under my plan, every trade would be assesed a fee of $1 on both sides of the trade, giving the govt $2 per trade. That way the losers in the market begin paying their fair share. As for the hyper-active daytraders, you'll just have to find a way to make another buck on each trade. And I'm not worried about daytraders leaving the market en-masse, most of you are compulsive gamblers anyway and couldn't quit if you wanted too. As a matter of fact, I think I'll slap you direct access guys with a higher fee just to prove my point.
The fees would be split 90% to the gen treasury and 10% to the SEC, and that would probably represent a massive windfall to the SEC, and still a fairly large increase to the treasury. It depends really on how many people are perrenial losers in the market, but if the consensus is true that most lose, it is an increase to the govt no matter what, and a decrease in taxes for the PROFITABLE TRADER, which is what we all either are or aspire to be.