Got Tea?

House Democrats want a graduated surtax on individuals and corporations to pay for another big drain on the treasury: the Afghanistan war.

[...]

The speaker has been silent thus far, and many dismiss the idea as more rhetoric than real legislation. But with President Barack Obama due to make a final decision soon on adding more U.S. troops, the initiative testifies to the growing restlessness among Democrats over the costs of the American commitment in Afghanistan.

[...]

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), who oversees the Pentagon’s budget and supports the surtax, went so far as to send Obama last month a copy of Yale historian Paul Kennedy’s “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.”

[...]

“We’re not trying to insult anybody. We’re just trying to keep in the forefront what the financial costs are,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) told POLITICO. “We felt conscience bound to speak up”

  Politico

That’s rich. Politicians claiming conscience. Anyway, this is one area that distinguishes Dems from Republicans: they don’t form a concrete block behind their party’s president.

Dubbed the “Share the Sacrifice Act,” the six-page bill exempts anyone who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan since the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as families who have lost an immediate relative in the fighting. But middle-class households earning between $30,000 and $150,000 would be asked to pay 1% on top of their tax liability today — a more sweeping approach than many Democrats have been willing to embrace.

If I’m not mistaken, we’ve already been paying taxes to support these wars. Nevertheless, that would be a good way to put an end to them. The “Tea Parties” would bring the country to a standstill. So I say, “Full speed ahead, gentlemen.”

There’s a breakdown of the expected costs and taxes in the article, should you choose to read it.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.