It’s hard to imagine Congress wanting to tax Americans who are diligently saving for retirement by investing automatically in company retirement plans, but that’s what Democrats new “transaction tax” appears to do.

Called the “Wall Street Tax Act,” the new legislation introduced Tuesday would tax every stock, bond and derivative transactions at 0.1 percent or $1 per $1,000 in trade.

The legislation’s sponsors say it targets “unproductive and speculative” trading, but American Retirement Association (ARA) CEO Brian Graff said the financial transactions tax would apparently eat away at the trillions of dollars of retirement savings invested in mutual funds and collective investment trusts by pensions and 401(k)s.

Lawmakers simply didn’t think through the implications on retirement plan investors. “It’s called the Wall Street Tax Act, but it’s really a Main Street savings attack,” Graff said.

“Every week millions of Americans sacrifice to set aside part of their hard-earned pay for retirement, investing those savings to help provide a secure financial future,” Graff said.

“After years of attacking 401(k) plan fees, some members of Congress now want to charge 10 basis points every time a hard-working American contributes out of their pay into their 401(k). And then charge another 10 basis points every time the account is rebalanced. And then, another 10 basis points when that worker retires and sells some of those investments so they can maintain their standard of living.”

The long-term costs to retirement investors would be significant. “We’re talking about the equivalent of an across-the-board fee increase on 401(k) plans,” Graff noted.

According to a 2015 report from the Obama Administration’s Council of Economic Advisors on the impact of 401(k) fees, a financial transaction tax could reduce an American’s retirement savings by as much as 3 percent over their lifetime.  Older employees have just $200,000 on average in their 401(k) plans, according to U.S. Census data. Younger employees have $95,000.

“It appears that some in Congress may think that the only people who invest are super rich,” Graff concludes. “But there are 80 million American workers who are investing for their future in their 401(k). At a time when there is so much concern about retirement income adequacy and the impact of 401(k) fees, it’s stunning that some members of Congress would attack the retirement savings of hard-working Americans.”

The Joint Committee on Taxation has estimated the financial transaction tax would raise $777 billion over the next 10 years.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced the bills Tuesday and a number of progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a 2020 presidential contender, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have already become co-signers.

“Over the last decade, Wall Street has made record profits from high-risk trades that have made the market dangerously volatile, while doing nothing to add real value to our economy or raise wages for workers,” Schatz said. “My bill will help discourage this kind of risky, volume-based trading and bring in billions in new revenue.”

The lawmakers say the tax -- would apply to every transaction made in the United States or by a U.S. person including retail investors -- would be assessed on the fair market value of equities and bonds, and the payment flows under derivatives contracts. Initial public offerings and short-term debt (with a maturity of less than 100 days) would be exempted.

“Wall Street has made an art of high-speed trading and rank speculation that has fattened the wallets of a few while putting everyday Americans at risk. This tiny high-roller fee will help curb this risky behavior while generating revenue that we can invest in growing our real economy and helping hard-working families,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who has cosponsored the House bill.

The Communications Workers of America, which represents 700,000 workers in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, public service and manufacturing, said the act would make the U.S. tax system fairer and put the brakes on corporate greed.

“The Wall Street Tax Act is a good step toward leveling the financial playing field for working families and making sure Wall Street traders and speculators pay their fair share,” CWA President Chris Shelton said in a prepared statement. “The bill will put the brakes on Wall Street speculation and excesses by closing the loophole that allows Wall Street traders to avoid the kinds of sales tax that working families pay every day. We’re proud to support this bill, which would help address the rigged tax code that rewards the wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.”

Those claims will not go unanswered. Kyle Pomerleau, chief economist and vice president of economic analysis at the Tax Foundation said the tax appears to be “taxing income multiple times.”

The lawmakers claim by increasing transaction costs slightly, the legislation would redirect money to “more productive” areas of the economy and reduce the risk of financial crashes.

While the financial crisis had many causes “volume of stock trades was not one of them,” Pomerleau said.