The past several years a large number of publicly-traded companies have seen their stock values decrease significantly. The effects of this have resulted individual taxpayers selling of stocks and other equities for significant losses.
The IRS only allows for up to $3,000 in losses to be claimed in any given tax year. Rolling these loses over several years can, for some taxpayers, take many years to be fully credited for their losses.
Increasing the maximum allowed deduction will allow for a significant tax savings to individual consumers, many of whom may still facing financial difficulties from the recent recession.