Citing increasing concerns about the rising cost of the Afghan War, a group of House Democrats led by Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-WI) have proposed a new tax on personal income.
The tax is being pressed forward as part of the “Share the Sacrifice Act of 2010,” which Rep. Obey and others say will ensure that all Americans share the onerous burden of continuing the seemingly endless conflict in Afghanistan.
The tax would be graduated into three stages, one level for those earning less than $150,000 a year, another for those earning $150,000-$250,000, and then one for $250,000+ earners. The goal is to increase taxes on the first group by 1% and increase each of the other two to whatever level the President decides will be needed for the war in any given year. Members of the US military would be exempt from the tax hike.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among the high profile co-signers of the bill, and said there was serious concern in the Democratic Caucus about how to afford the war, which Rep. Obey estimates could cost another $1 trillion over the next ten years.
Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) has proposed a similar idea, and momentum for the plan seems to be growing with President Obama’s upcoming escalation announcement next week.
While the Afghan War is shaping up to rival Vietnam for the longest war in American history, most war-based tax hikes endure long after the conflict has died down. An 1898 tax on telephone service pushed forward to pay for the Spanish American War stayed on the books until late 2006, over a century after the war ended.
If these congress and senate critters had any honor, they’d do a Jonestown. Then we as true Americans could pull out and apologize to the world for electing such.
Amen, and take the Israel Lobby with them by pretending the Kool Aid is Kosher/ Jesus Juice.
So, with an already screwed up economy, this is another way to fleece taxpayers of this country for an illegal war that most people do not want. This is another examle of a governmant that acts independantly of the will of the people. More so, the polititians in Wash. seem to think that we are there to serve them instead of the other way around. This is pathetic.
Did April 1st come early this year? Is this a joke?
Good. Except I would recommend a 10% tax, across the board.
Maybe if ordinary americans get hit in the pocketbook, they'll finally wake up and demand their armies quit these monstrously horrible wars ( of their making ). Nothing else seems to work, as wars on the other side of the globe don't directly affect them.
But, then again, maybe nothing short of a 2×4 smack in the face would wake them……….hmmmm.
And what we have in our Congress are 535 idiots and morons, TRAITORS, crooks and thieves, some perverts, and incompetents – NONE who have any moral character or integrity – and NONE of whom have any concern for the welfare of the American people. While we may laugh at the French people – at least they had the courage to storm the Bastille in 1789. The American people need to storm the Congress before they totally destroy America.
Screw these people! I already regret paying the current war tax. It's time for the US people to make it clear that they don't want these wars.
Why tax the American people, we don't want the war.Lets take all the money these crooks in office have, rape their banks accounts, find their hidden oversea accounts, their ill gotten gains from big business and take every penny to pay for the war they want. I voted for this president on his promise to end the wars, so now its time to work to make sure his time in office is short.He lies as well as all the idiots in Washington.
why can't Bush and family pay for the war THEY STARTED
"why can't Bush and family pay for the war THEY STARTED"
That wouldn't be the same war that the Obama administration expanded, would it?
Ahem… GE, Dyncorp, Rand Corporation, Haliburton, KBR, Lockheed Martin, Amoco, British Petroleum, etc. etc.
Look beyond the puppets and recognize the corporatist superstructure.
Thank you from the heart of my bottom, all you loyal Democrats, for the kind offer to participate directly (via taxation) in the ongoing sacrifice of untold thousands of Afghan civilians as well as creating even more Depleted Uranium dust (Glow Now, Pray Later).
With all due disrespect, I decline to finance your horrorshow and fervently wish you the "best" as you hoist on your own petard. You will face an accounting someday, and most assuredly will be found wanting!
I initially agreed with the war in question because of 9/11 but
it's become evident that we have allowed ourselves to be suckered
into a conflict that has been waged time and again by past nations
and in different era's without learning a damn thing. Let's get the hect
out of there without bringing an even greater finacial burden upon the
American citizen.
So now Nancy Pelosi is opposed to the tax? She co-signed the bill why? If they are so keen on raising money for war, then why don't they authorize the sale of war bonds? What? They won't find enough investors in war? Not one man, not one penny for Obama's war!