Mon Nov 23, 2009 at 11:47:14 AM EST
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Anyone else think this is an interesting idea?
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, Armed Services Committee Chairman John Murtha, and Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson, and House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank have all signed on to the "Share the Sacrifice" Act, which would impose a war surtax starting in 2011 (in order to allow more time for economic recovery):
"For the last year, as we've struggled to pass healthcare reform, we've been told that we have to pay for the bill - and the cost over the next decade will be about a trillion dollars. Now the President is being asked to consider an enlarged counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, which proponents tell us will take at least a decade and would also cost about a trillion dollars. But unlike the healthcare bill, that would not be paid for. We believe that's wrong," said Obey, Murtha and Larson. "Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for."
"The only people who've paid any price for our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are our military families," they added. "We believe that if this war is to be fought, it's only fair that everyone share the burden. That's why we are offering legislation to impose a graduated surtax so that the cost of the war is not borrowed."
[...]
Essentially, below the $150,000 level, the 15 percent bracket for a family, there would be an increase of one percent of your current level, so for most people that would be 15.15 percent. Separate changes would happen between the $150-$250,000 income level and above $250,000, which would be set by the president depending on his eventual decision on what to do in Afghanistan; currently, the war costs about $68 billion a year, but that could increase if the White House decides to send more troops or spend more money on development projects.
These members of Congress raise a good point. Since the beginning of the post-9/11 overseas contingency operations, criticism of the wars from the point of view of fiscal conservatism has been rare. Never in the history of the United States have tax cuts been implemented in a war time economy, until the Bush (43) Administration. Wars cost money. Whether all citizens who live under the protection of the American armed forces should share in the sacrifice of men and women in uniform is a fair consideration. |
| Richard Allen Smith :: A War Surtax? |
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