A Possible $10 Tax on a Barrel of Oil More Fantasy Than Reality

President Obama’s idea to tax oil to fund transporation projects will be dead on arrival on Republican-controlled Capitol Hill, according the Politico reporter who broke the story. Michael Grunwald reported that President Obama will propose more than $300 billion worth of investments in a ‘21st century clean transporation system’ when he introduces his budget next week funded by a $10 a barrel tax on oil. ‘It’s an election year. Republicans are pretty much constitutionally opposed to taxes of any kind anyway,’ said Grunwald. ‘This is not going to be anywhere on the Congressional agenda for awhile.’ According to Grundwald, Obama will propose investing in mass transit, high-speed rail systems, and even self-driving cars as a way to reduce carbom emissions and ease highway congestion. ‘This is definitely Obama laying down a marker and making a statement about his vision for the future,’ said Grunwald. ‘He’s essentally saying look the kind of old system where Congress gives hundreds of billions of dollars to states to build more roads and bigger highways that have more traffic and create more carbon emissions is not the way to go.’ TheStreet's Rhonda Schaffler has more from Wall Street. Subscribe to TheStreetTV on YouTube: http://t.st/TheStreetTV For more content from TheStreet visit: http://thestreet.com Check out all our videos: http://youtube.com/user/TheStreetTV Follow TheStreet on Twitter: http://twitter.com/thestreet Like TheStreet on Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheStreet Follow TheStreet on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/theStreet Follow TheStreet on Google+: http://plus.google.com/+TheStreet