As the Antiplanner previously noted, House Transportation Committee Chair James Oberstar (D-MN) and Highways and Transit Subcommittee Chair Peter DeFazio (D-OR) want to spend $500 billion on transportation over the next six years — which is about $150 billion more than is available. Fortunately, if you think their plan is a good one, DeFazio has a solution: tax futures trades in oil.
This should easily raise $150 billion, DeFazio says, and “it should be wildly popular. I mean, everybody hates speculators.” That’s the ticket: just tax people everyone hates.
