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Why We Need a War Tax
Nikola Solic / Reuters
Amid reports that Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, liberals are rallying around a plan to raise revenue for the surge. Matthew Yglesias on how this war hits your wallet.
For months now, liberals in the blogosphere and the press have been complaining about the hypocrisy of a deficit-obsessed Washington establishment that blanches at the thought of taking on an additional dollar of debt in order to create jobs or expand access to health care, but thinks nothing of slapping a couple of wars on the old national tab. To conservative Republicans and “centrist” Blue Dogs alike, the deficit is a reason we can’t afford to do anything until suddenly it’s time to pay for bombs and guns—and then it doesn’t matter. Even the fairly liberal Obama administration goes along with this contention, absolutely insisting that health reform and climate-change legislation must reduce the deficit but putting no such constraint on military operations.
What’s badly needed is some kind of leadership priority to which they can say “no” from the left. Debt-financed escalation of the war in Afghanistan fits the bill.
Now someone is doing something about it.
Representative David Obey (D-WI), chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee, has been making noise about this mismatch since October. On Monday, he got more specific with his complaints, proposing a special “war surtax” to finance any possible escalation of troop levels in Afghanistan. Now the idea’s attracted some powerful partners, specifically two other major liberal committee chairs, Charlie Rangel (D-NY) of the Ways and Means Committee and Barney Frank (D-MA) of the Financial Services Committee, along with John Larson (D-CT), who chairs the House Democratic caucus. Also on board is John Murtha (D-PA), who’s not really a liberal but endeared himself to the left with early opposition to the Iraq War—and who now needs to keep those ties strong as he comes under increasing ethical clouds.
Their bill is called the Share the Sacrifice Act, and the details are somewhere between inspired and too cute. The main provision is a 1 percent tax on households earning between $30,000 and $150,000 with progressively higher rates on families earning above $150,000. Exactly how high those rates would go would depend on how much the war costs. Meanwhile, those who’ve served in Iraq or Afghanistan and the immediate families of those who lost their lives in the fighting would be exempt.
Members of Congress rarely leap at the opportunity to vote for a tax increase, so the odds of this bill passing don’t seem great. It does, however, provide an extremely convenient point around which for progressive members to organize by signing on to the bill—and then saying they can’t vote for further war appropriations until they’re held to the same standard of deficit neutrality as other budget elements. Ordinarily, casting a vote against a defense-funding request is a politically hairy move against “funding the troops.” But the Share the Sacrifice Act allows such an action to be reframed as a plea for budgetary responsibility and an end to the dynamic in which America is a peacetime country whose military happens to be fighting wars.
It would also serve some broader objectives. As liberals are discovering, trying to be the good guys has left them with a frustrating lack of leverage on key policy issues. When Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) or Joe Lieberman (I-CT) threaten to sink health reform unless the public option is killed, they’re credible. Moderate Democrats, by all indications, really would condemn millions of Americans to going uninsured and face the possibility of bankruptcy or even death if they can’t get their way on this point. Liberals, by contrast, can say they’d spike a reform bill that doesn’t conform to what they want on the public option, but realistically no progressive member of Congress is going to be that sociopathic.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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kayjay
Fantastic idea. If people have to pay for the chasing the illusion of safety, rather than passing the cost off to their children, perhaps they'll be a bit more responsible about where they waste their money.
Chicago48
I totally agree with a war tax. Since we've been in a war since I was born in the 1940s and we won't be out of wars for decades -- I can't remember a decade when we weren't at war -- let's plan ahead and start financing it with taxes.
floridabob
I think the House and Senate members should pay for any war costs.
lmktacwa
I'm all for it!
Righties, putcher money where yer mouth is!
Baddchild
you do realize you'd be paying the tax also right? or do you think the dems can get away with taxing by poitical party ID?
Here's a better idea, instead of blowing a trillion dollars on democratic pork under the guise of "stimulating" jobs that don't exist, in congressional districts that don't exist (maybe they are in one of the infamous 7 states from 0bama's 57 states) or another trillion on the global warming hoax (very little mention of the "climategate" stories on here - tough finding out there is no santa isn't it) and put the money behind the people fighting to keep us free from terrorism and assholes shooting up military bases in the name of islam. Then we would know our money is being put to good use and not some 300 million to buy of the vote of just one useless senator who sat by and watched the looters of nawlins' get flooded out 3 days after the storm hits.
ukeman
ow; sounds like the idea gets you all riled up there baddy.
Not used to having to pay for the cowboy way of looking at war huh?
I reckon it's your choice of leaders' way of pullin more wool over your eyes that you prefer; off budget; war profiteering.
Get real and get beyond the whack talking points.
How about a draft?
aagjr733
Q.Where did Bush get the money to pay for the Iraq surge?
A. borrowed it from Japan & China.
Q. Who is going to pay for it ?
A. Your Great Great Grand children
Liberals pay as we go. unlike conservatives who pass it along to their kids & middle / poor people class
candyman101
"Liberals pay as we go..." that is the funniest thing I've seen all day. That stimulus is already paid for huh? I mean don't get me wrong, the repubs are just as bad, but a statement as outlandish as "liberals pay as we go" earns you the official title as a dumbass.
Monk66
you're an idiot if you felt that Imktacwa's comment was about only Righties paying the tax.
747 went over your head on that one..
flyoverland
I would gladly pay a war tax if Obama would let the military win it and not fight a politically correct skirmish with Miranda rights, etc. I cut Bush no slack here, either. I think if Americans had skin in the game they would demand we either win or get the hell out.
OldCrow
How about cutting the 900 pork barrel projects that Congress added to the defense budget that have nothing to do with the military.
Or the billions wasted on the global warming scam.
Maybe Senator Landrieu can pony up the $300M that she received in a bribe for her vote last week.
crypto
Can't do that Crow. Pelosi gotta have HER airplane don'tcha see.
neverlate
As a fiscal conservative I totally agree with you. We should get out of Afghanistan, NATO and Korea. We should cut our defense budget in half. Fix health care through market mechanisms; making it affordable. We should stop rewarding debt and end the tax incentives that discourage investment in manufacturing. We should raise the price of gas to over $4.00 a gallon and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. We should reduce red tape that makes it inpossible to build anything in this country and rediscover the american know-how.
We could do all the above if you Left wing and Right wing wacko ideologues would just take a vacation!
zetathree
Not that I agree with you entirely (being liberal leaning), I am glad there is a fiscally conservative person on this site who actually understands the scope of government subsidies. There are so many new "free market ideologues" that have been created through the health care debate that don't know, or refuse to acknowledge, that there are many government programs that subsidize our current way of living. For instance, some estimate the price of gas to be well over $10.00 a gallon when all government subsidies, direct and indirect, are removed. Of course, corporations benefit from our government through personhood. The automobile was promoted over other forms of transportation via creation and upkeep of interstate highways. And on and on and on.
flyoverland
While East Coast, effete, liberals continue to berate the automobile, (just not the Town Car Services they use), they do not seem to understand that America is a huge country that cannot be run with mass transit. Here in flyoverland, 90 % do not live within walking distance of even a bus (we don't have subways, can you imagine that?). If you raise the price of gas to $4.00, you will have a repeat of the recession and this one might be final. The match that lit the fuse of the recession was the price of gas. If you take people living paycheck to paycheck, people who have to drive to work and raise the price of their fuel by $200-300 a month, you just caused them to miss their house notes which caused the house of cards to topple. We should continue to drill here while we develop something else. Until there is something else, real people have to get to work (assuming they still have jobs after the liberals run off all the jobs because it makes them feel better).
tahlhyker
Neverlate, well done!!! I don't agree with everything but your mix is what congress is supposed to be doing. Find the middle to plan and solve long term difficult problems. I am a liberal that almost always disagrees with military action. The realty of Afghanistan is that we can pay now or pay later - a home for terrorist will surely be the result of us leaving.
OldCrow
The only reason we import foreign oil is because drilling too tightly regulated in the US. We are very capable of drilling in an environmentally responsible manner off the east and west coasts as well as more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
eurydice9276
This is a peculiar article about a peculiar idea. The American public will get taxed for this war anyway, just as it has been for all the other wars. Basically, what Yglesias is talking about is an additional tax in order to get Congress and the administration to do the job they should be doing already, which is to evaluate all our defense needs and budget accordingly.
newswoman
But calling it a WAR TAX is psychological. It makes people think about war and paying for it, not just the government paying for it. It all comes out of our tax money, I know, but this way people will feel more responsible...maybe.
khepri
It surely is an act of cowardice, for as Eurydice says, congress should be taking the lead on reducing/eliminating war costs and wars in general. Instead, those elected to congress in the land of the "fearful" will pass the buck onto the taxpayer rather than take a stand themselves. But NewsW: your last point is also key. US citizens just don't seem to feel responsible or are insensitive to what the pentagon is doing--and costing.
I think this idea of creating a war tax is symptomatic of the death of American democracy. It is a St. Vitus Dance merely. Game's over, man.
crypto
We are paying tax for the constitutional reason we have politicians. To protect our nation. That is the only reason, the only responsibility, of the political structure. The rest of this garbage is something the politicians have taken on without authorization.
theonetruman
What we really need is a stupid tax. First in line is David Obey... a leftist douche of the highest order. I have never in my life seem a more wonderful group of spectacularly incompetent people in my life.
Monk66
"In Texas, we have a little saying: Fool me once, shame on.. shame on.. you.. Fool me twice.. shame on.. You fool me once you cant get fooled agin"
"I believe OBGYN's should be able to practice their love for women"
"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease"
"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror"
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda"
"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?"
haha he'd be broke if we put that tax in.
brandy
IF IT IS WORTH DYING FOR IT IS WORTH PAYING FOR
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n--Y--misterdonncsteeler
What is stupid about paying for foriegn adventures? Or is it just stupid if you might have to pay for something. I could see telling the hawks to find $50-100B in pentagon budget to pay for such adventures. Close down some overseas bases, cancel some of the cold war weapons that are still in the pipeline, scrape missle defense that doesn't work. How much did we pay for the 186 F22's that have never seen combat action? And you don't think there aren't dozens of other weapons systems still being built?
Don't get me started on the "global warming is a hoax" crowd.
jbuzz1
We should just get the hell out of Afghanistan...it will never be a stable country. The Russians were there for 15 years and now we are fighting the same enemy. Bin Laden wanted us in there because he knows it is unwinnable territory...we are just throwing good money after bad. Same for Iraq - there was absolutely no justification for going in there. It's time to protect our borders and invest in the US. We could then forget about the tax increase, though I'm sure the lefties here will find another reason to get in the pockets of American taxpayers, especially those "wealthy" who have oppressed the peasants for so long.
jds8181
But if we force Americans to actually pay attention to the costs of war then we make it harder for the defense contractors to continue looting our populace. People might actually want to hold politicians accountable for appropriating hundreds of billions of dollars to construct buildings that many experts predict will fall into disrepair immediately after the U.S. withdraws from Iraq, or question why Dick Cheney's Halliburton has been getting paid a king's ransom to install faulty electrical systems that are electrocuting our service men and women. This is insanity!!! If defense contractors cannot continue to pillage in the name of patriotism then what are political connections good for? Next thing you know people are going to start to wonder why we pay Blackwater, now Xe, six times what it would cost to have a trained soldier perform the same duties. No, we MUST support the troops. And if you question why we're spending so much money abroad when people here at home are hurting, or when our infrastructure is crumbling before our eyes, then you're obviously not a REAL American, and you can geeeeet out!!! RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!!!
MaliciousDisorder
Since we are already laying a 2 trillion deficit on the great grand children, thanks to Obama, a 50 billion cost is a small price to pay for freedom. I heard harry Reid say 50 billion is a very small amount.
If democrats want a war tax to get everyone involved bring back the DRAFT and share the sacrifice..
netguru2000
The war tax is BRILLIANT. People want to send America in to kill. People say it has to be done to create a "safer world", then take it right out of our pockets. I can't WAIT to see how important people think this war is when they start yanking an extra 10% from their paycheck. THIS IS BRILLIANT!!! FYI, does everyone get in 10 years our debt will be $40,000 for every man, woman and child in the US?
mzkitti
First thing we should do to have more funds is very simple.... I think we should recind the no-tax policy for the religions and churches in this country
Catholic Bishops are waltzing around our Capital for weeks now, telling us how to run the country.
Now they are again threatening their parishers with excommunication if they do not come out and rant against abortion rights in this country.
Enough is enough.
The Catholic church enjoys its trillions of dollars in real estate and other businessess because they pay a bsolutely no taxes .
Enough already!
Either that, or we rule that there will be no Catholics allowed to represent us in our governments anymore... starting today. If the Pope and the Catholic Church can tell us how to run our country it is high time Catholics were not allowed in the arena.
This crap about some priest telling Kennedy he is going to be excommunicated if he continues to support abortion is over the line.
If you have never been to the Vatican you simply can not imagine how rich a religion can be.
It is mind-boggling.
aackc1
The Liberal solution for everything... A new tax!!!
Please don't ask us to be more effecient with the money we receive. It is not enough!!! We need more!
This government gets a big F U!
BipartisanCurious
The liberal solution to this problem would have been to have never gone to Iraq in the first place.
newswoman
A draft will never happen and a War tax won't either, but we can dream. Congress has got to do a better job than they have been doing. And the 2 trillion debt was caused...wait for it..... by BUSH, BUSH, BUSH.
crypto
Monday night NBC, and you know NBC is Obamason territory, said and I quote, " when GW Bush left the white house he left Obamason with a $900 billion dollar deficit" How'd we get to 2 trillion from there?? Bush was gone.
Thank you.
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