According to an Infrastructurist article, Sen. Barbara Boxer said in a committee hearing today that H.R. 2724, the National Transportation Objectives Act of 2009, is toast, at least during the current congressional session, "because we have no consensus on how to fund the new bill." Oberstar's proposal to raise the federal gasoline tax, she said, is a nonstarter, not least because it would have to go up 10 cents per gallon (from its current 18 cents per gallon) just to cover the current shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund. (Which seems to me like a fairly compelling argument for going ahead and raising it, but I guess I don't think like a U.S. senator.)
So is that it, at least until 2011? Maybe. Or maybe not. Because Rep. Peter DeFazio has an ingenious idea of how to fund the transportation bill, which Infrastructurist hilariously characterizes as, "Make Wall Street A**holes Foot the Bill for Infrastructure."
Instead of taxing drivers more at the pump, says Peter DeFazio, why not make those finance guys that we all hate so much pay for it?
Specifically, the Democratic congressman from Oregon wants to impose a small tax–0.02%–on oil futures contracts.
From his office: “A transaction tax on crude oil securities will close the gap in funding a twenty-first century transportation system while lowering the price of oil. This is a win/win,” DeFazio said. . . .
Since oil futures are a multi-trillion dollar market, the numbers add up quickly even at such a low rate of taxation. DeFazio’s proposal would rebate the tax to good guys like railroads and airlines who buy futures to hedge against fluctuations in the price of crude and stick hedge funds and the like with the tab. According to DeFazio’s press release: “This proposal would rebate all transaction taxes paid by legitimate hedgers. Since the tax is on speculation only, it deters speculation and undermines much of the crude oil price bubble.”
I don't know whether this plan would work or how much money it would raise, but here are the things about this proposal that make me happy:
- Someone in Congress is seriously proposing an additional tax on oil and gas.
- Someone in Congress is seriously proposing an additional tax on the luxury class.
- Someone in Congress is seriously proposing an idea that we haven't already heard a thousand times -- and heard dismissed a thousand times.
- That number -- 0.02 percent -- is so inoffensive, I can hardly wait to see the Republican Party go into contortions to try to explain why it's a threat to American Life as We Know It. I hope I get advance warning, so that I can make popcorn.
DeFazio could easily be quoting one of us when he says,
“If we put off this transportation authorization, we will push off needed reform. Every day we wait people will sit in traffic instead of spending time with their families, every day people are not as safe as they could be because of our crumbling infrastructure, every day our economy suffers when our products sit in traffic jams. My proposal will not cost consumers one cent but will substantially increase our investment in our transportation infrastructure.”
For that matter, he could easily be quoting a press release from Transportation for America or any other progressive group that happens to be interested in transportation policy. But he's right. No matter how much else Congress has on its plate, the NTOA is vital legislation that addresses three critical issues: economic stimulus, climate change, and how the heck we (and our goods) will get around in the 21st century. The first two of these are already big and hairy and will only get bigger and hairier the longer we put them off; the third presents an opportunity that we should make the best of now, because experience suggests that if we ever emerge from our current state of crisis, the will to make wide-scale systemic changes will vanish, just as Americans' driving habits snapped back to normal after $4-per-gallon gas went back down to $2.25. And it's out-of-the-box revenue proposals like DeFazio's that offer the most hope for keeping not just this legislation but other big-ticket items, such as health care reform, moving forward.
Now if we can only figure out how to clear those hidebound Senate obstructionists out of the right of way.