Surcharge on Taxes for the War?

[desertvixen]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gQ6MiELLp8fFhwGT9y-Ri-p6o6QwD8S198DG1

Three senior House Democrats proposed an income tax surcharge Tuesday to finance the approximately $150 billion annual cost of operations in Iraq, saying it is unfair to pass the cost of the war on to future generations.

 

The plan, unveiled by Reps. David Obey, D-Wis., John Murtha, D-Pa., and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., would require low- and middle-income taxpayers to add 2 percent to their tax bill. Wealthier people would add a 12 to 15 percent surcharge, Obey said.

Top Democrats immediately shot down the idea and Republicans roasted Democrats for linking funding for U.S. troops overseas with tax increases.

Democrats have been seeking in recent weeks to contrast the approximately $190 billion cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars with the $23 billion increase that Democrats want in domestic programs.

President Bush has threatened to veto most of those domestic spending bills as too expensive. Those bills were largely written by the House Appropriations Committee that Obey chairs. Murtha chairs the panel's subcommittee that writes Pentagon and war spending bills.

"The war will cost future generations billions of dollars in taxes that we're shoving off on them and it is devouring money that could be used to expand their educational opportunities, expand their job training possibilities, attack our long-term energy problems and build stronger communities," Obey said.

Obey also announced that Democrats will not pass a supplemental spending bill for the Iraq war until next year, when Democrats hope public pressure could force Bush to change the course of the war.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21104662/

A few hours later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also flatly rejected the tax increase.

She assailed President Bush for asking for "no sacrifice from the American people — except from our men and women in uniform and their families."

But she rejected a tax increase as a form of "sacrifice."

Pelosi scuttles tax hike idea
"Some have suggested that shared sacrifice should take the form of a draft; others have suggested a surtax," Pelosi said in a written statement. "Those who oppose a tax and the draft also should oppose the President's war. Just as I have opposed the war from the outset, I am opposed to a draft and I am opposed to a war surtax."

 I'm not sure I support the actual measure, but I definitely support the idea of discussion about sacrifices that are or are not being made.

DV

Comments

[gi-janearng.livejournal.com]

I don't get it. They don't want to pass the cost of the war onto future generations, but they want to pass a bill to up our taxes?

Not just no, but Hell no.

Maybe those fat f*cks should get off their asses and pony up their paychecks instead voting to give themselves pay increases.

I think I'll be giving my Congressman a call.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I kind of think it might be one of those suggestions that isn't really meant to be taken seriously, but to provoke discussion.

I doubt it would be intended to be permanent, but would have an expiration condition attached to it, probably the presence of troops in Iraq. (Yes, I know there are probably always going to be troops in Iraq, but in reduced numbers.)

I also would expect military members and their spouses to be exempt from such a surcharge.

Their pay raises however, are a sore issue.

DV

[filkferengi]

The income tax wasn't intended to be permanent, either, but is still with us.

I'd have a lot more respect for the politicos if they were anything like as enthusiastic about spending their money as they are about spending mine. ;(

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

it is unfair to pass the cost of the war on to future generations.

Every other cost, yes, but not this one?

Boy. Howdy.

I'm with Mr. Hitchens on this one:

...by the paltry politicians in Washington and Baghdad who squabble for precedence while lifeblood is spent and spilled by young people whose boots they are not fit to clean.

(As for the other post--there's a reason I quit listening to TVnews and never listen to talk radio...)

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I very much dislike myself and my husband being political footballs.

MSNBC seems to be the least annoying of the news networks, and we're supposed to have one on at all times.

DV