War tax?
Last week Congressman Obey submitted a bill that would impose a surtax to pay for the continued war effort in Afghanistan. The goal, according to TNR, is to raise awareness of the real costs of the war in a way that will make the tradeoffs of the conflict more obvious.
A quick take is that this kind of regulation is definitely justified. Military spending has always occupied a strange netherworld where it is rarely if ever discussed as a direct trade off with social programs. Of course, this bill is not likely to pass. But it raises interesting questions about why the obvious trade offs in public spending are not more fully discussed. What is it that makes military spending so popular? Is it dedication to an amorphous “victory?” More questions than answers here — perhaps a smart commenter can explain why American political discourse has evolved this way.
-John
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One Response to “War tax?”
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John-
It’s shocking to me that this is something that won’t pass- every Republican, every Blue Dog, and everyone complaining about a balanced budget should be jumping on the bandwagon with this. Isn’t it people’s patriotic duty to pay for our military operations? Further, it seems like the DoD budget would get far more scrutiny if people saw the direct tax for funding the war. I’d gladly pay a tax to better fund our troops in Afghanistan, not only to help them succeed, but to help balance the budget.