Rep. DeFazio’s tax gaining support

    Aug. 10, 2009
    Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.) recently suggested a transportation tax on Wall Street oil speculators—and it continues to gain support on Capitol Hill. A month after he proposed the measure, 29 fellow Democrats have latched on to the idea.

    According to DC Streetsblog.org, The bill would set the tax at 0.2% for every oil futures contract and 0.5% for every option on a futures contract, which DeFazio said would raise nearly $200 billion for transportation over the next six years.

    Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.) recently suggested a transportation tax on Wall Street oil speculators—and it continues to gain support on Capitol Hill. A month after he proposed the measure, 29 fellow Democrats have latched on to the idea.

    According to DC Streetsblog.org, The bill would set the tax at 0.2% for every oil futures contract and 0.5% for every option on a futures contract, which DeFazio said would raise nearly $200 billion for transportation over the next six years.

    DeFazio’s move does have one snag in the form of exemptions. Those businesses that rely on “commercial” oil future trades would be protected from the tax to guard against economic downtowns or oil price fluctuations as long as they never held the oil futures for their own profit-making purposes.

    The move, however, would give Congress a strong financial mechanism to fund the next six-year highway bill. The current one, SAFETEA-LU, expires on Sept. 30.

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