UPDATE: It is time for a war tax
UPDATE: Al is talking about this on his show now. It should be fun listening to the wingnuts call in and defend the status quo.
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A full cut and paste is the only way to do justice to this Americablog post.
House Approps chair Obey: It’s time for a war tax
by makeprofilelink(“John Aravosis (DC)”); John Aravosis (DC) · 10/02/2007 01:55:00 PM ET
Discuss this post here: CommentmyCount(‘7887943101270184654’);s (155) · digg it · reddit · FARK ·· Link
Halle-freaking-lujah. I’ve been proposing this for a while. It’s time we had a line item on our federal taxes for the war. Let people see what it’s really costing them, then see how happy they are about this war.
Obey also came out in favor of Rep. James McGovern’s (D-Mass.) war tax proposal.
“If you don’t like the cost, then shut down the war,” Obey said in a news conference.
The tax would be intended to raise roughly $150 billion for the war. It would be a surtax of 2 to 15 percent of income tax. A 2 percent surtax means that a person who would otherwise pay $100 in taxes would pay $102.
I’d love to see Bush and the Republicans say that they aren’t in favor of funding our troops. Of course, I don’t believe for a minute that the Democrats have the balls to do anything of the sort. The old David Obey wouldn’t have stood for Bush’s ongoing shenanigans, the man was a terror to behold (I actually got to debate him once during a House-Senate conference, it was rather weird, I was whispering the words in a Senator’s ear as he was repeating them to Obey as his own, very very weird – but I won :-). The new David Obey is just another Democratic sheeple. I miss the old Obey.
Yup. This is the way to do it. I’m not saying I support the tax, but this is an honorable way to debate the cost of war.
Obey seems to be playing the ‘politics of envy’ card long after most pols threw it into the discard pile.
About the only tax I would gladly pay. Bring it on.
Your lips to George Bush’s ass. ..I mean ears.
It is a great idea. Let’s impose a new tax so we will slip into recession. Only a Liberal Democrat would think that is worth doing.
David,
Why do you hate the troops?
David A. just wants to make other Americans pay most of the cost of the war for him. He doesn’t want to voulnteer an extra dime from his pocket.
The Bush administration has indeed use slight of hand in funding the war. I have been against their methods from the start but Congress has gone along for so long because they use “emergency” spending quite a bit to get around spending rules also. Both of them have not been honest with us.
A new tax isn’t needed, simply a bit of clarity in how Washington taxes and spends.
For what it is worth, the Government’s method of accounting would not be accepted anywhere in the private sector.
Here we go again. David A. you hate the troops by not funding them. At least that is the message that the conservatives keep throwing around at the liberals. And please explain how we are not going into debt and a recession with the methodology for paying for the war??? All that a war tax would do is the following:
Force us to pay our bills on time!! (Evidently this is hard to grasp. Unfortunate because under Gingrich this is what the conservatives proposed with a balanced budget.)
Force Americans (including the wealthy elite ***wipes) to finally realize the full cost of this unneccessary war.
Unfortunately this put Republithugs in a bad position as if they vote against they obviously just want to keep spending off the books and let it hit us when they are dead and buried, and running for reelection in HELL, but then they appear to not support the troops. But if it goes through there will not be a shot in hell that any republican backing the war will be reelected to congress.
But in no way will it cause a recession that is not already in progress because we have been spending on credit and letting China loan us money to survive. Oh wait, you must believe that China has our best interests at heart and won’t stop buying our bonds of debt to help us fund the war. Once again, please think before you speak.
‘Politics of envy.’ Nice try, Arthur. Don’t you have something more recent from the Republican Slogan of the Month Club?
We’re going to be talking about this tonight at the Progressive Dems meeting. 7:00 PM at DelDems HQ if you care to join in.
Why do you guys hate the poor? You must because you want to make more people poor by throwing the economy into recession. Who will be most hurt? Poor, minorites, young workers, those next to retirement, single moms, and union workers in cyclical industries are the ones most likely to be hurt.
I just have more compassion than you. I am a compassionate conservative. You guys not so much.
David,
Why do you hate the troops so much?
David A.
Once again, we are paying this money whether we want to or not. The only determining factor is when we choose to pay the full balance and account for the money. Your methodology leaves us in thrall to China and other nations buying our bonds to keep thier currency deflated so that they can export thier goods into America and undercut American manufactured goods. However, this can only last so long as the dollar keeps declining with more and more debt added to the books but not paid. Don’t forget with the import of cheaper goods that Americans continue to lose jobs, mainly the poor and those you cite, so while the economy is not technically in a recession and the rich are getting richer the lower income are worse off. That seems to be your position and therefore it is you who hates the poor which fits right in with your conservative philosophies. So now we can establish the following:
1. You hate the poor.
2. You hate the troops.
3. You want America to be in thrall to China so you are a communist.
Wow, this conservative idea of labeling people with little to no basis in reality is easy.
A recession would not cause anywhere near the amount of harm to the poor as losing employment will, which is happening now. The losers in a recession are the upper middle class and upper class who will see their stocks plummet as our currency actually gains value. Also, the proposition of a war tax could be progressive leaving those low income people out of the loop of the tax.
Once again,
Please think before you speak.
Tax policy should be designed to promote savings, growth and investment.
If you do those things you get more revenue.
I laugh at the laffer curve.