CQ POLITICS NEWS
Nov. 20, 2009 – 1:43 p.m.
Democrats Propose Surtax to Cover War Costs
Senior House Democrats have introduced legislation that would impose a surtax beginning in 2011 to cover the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The bill was unveiled late Thursday by David R. Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and has the backing of John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, and John B. Larson of Connecticut, chairman of the Democratic Caucus.
“For the last year, as we’ve struggled to pass health care 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,” the three lawmakers said in a joint statement. “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 health care bill, that would not be paid for. We believe that’s wrong.”
Discussing the idea earlier this month, Murtha said he knew the bill would not be enacted and that advocates of a surtax were simply trying to send a message about the moral obligation to pay for the wars.
“The only people who’ve paid any price for our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are our military families,” Murtha, Obey and Larson said in a joint statement. “We believe that if this war is to be fought, it’s only fair that everyone share the burden.”
The bill would require the president to set the surtax so that it fully pays for the previous year’s war cost. But it would allow for a one-year delay in the implementation of the tax if the president determines that the economy is too weak to sustain that kind of tax change. It also would exempt military members who have served in combat since Sept. 11, 2001, along with their families, and the families of soldiers killed in combat.
Comments
Unlike the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz, these senior house Democrats think they have a brain. I think it is Murtha, Obey, and Larson's moral obligation to pursue this legislation to a vote. Americans should hear their Congressman vote down the surtax. I want to hear my conservative congressman explain why these wars should be financed by taxpayer debt. I want to know why a conservative thinks a surtax to pay for these wars is not a sensible alternative. Pull the curtain back and show me the heartless lions who believe fighting wars around the world is a government benefit.
All types of income should be subject to the same tax table as wages and salaries including dividend income, capital gains income, and inheritance income.
It is long overdue that we pay for what we use. I am a long time progressive Democrat. However, the intellectual dishonesty that started with the Bush neocons needs to stop. Special appropriations to fund a war, regardless of whether you agree with it or not, is no way to run a government.
Unlike the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz, these senior house Democrats think they have a brain. I think it is Murtha, Obey, and Larson's moral obligation to pursue this legislation to a vote. Americans should hear their Congressman vote down the surtax. I want to hear my conservative congressman explain why these wars should be financed by taxpayer debt. I want to know why a conservative thinks a surtax to pay for these wars is not a sensible alternative. Pull the curtain back and show me the heartless lions who believe fighting wars around the world is a government benefit.
How does one justify a moral obligation for a immoral war?
Yes, I believe we should have a War Tax. I also believe that every politician on Capitol Hill and in the White House who either initiated, and or supported these wars have that tax levied solely upon them. And let's not forget all the companies like Haliburton who have prospured because of them. I'M DAMN TIRED OF BEING TAXED FOR THEIR INCOMPETENCE, FOR THEIR GREED AND FOR THEIR CORRUPT WAYS.
Where do you people think they are getting the money from to fun the military now? From us, the tax payers. I sent my son over there now they want me to pay more! Hey, I got a suggestion, start by spending what you have and quit handing out money to bonus happy institutions that don't give ripping off the American public a second thought. Live with in your means like the rest of us!
This is another example of how Democrats in Congress think we constituents are to dumb to know we already are paying the taxes to support the wars. The problem is their spending in other areas is so much more than the taxes collected, we need China to lend us the money to fund war. I wonder why China vetos all UN votes we propose as war alternatives (eg. sanctions)yet lends us the money to go to war. Is that a conflict of interest?
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