Rep. Obey proposes war tax

Tue, 11/24/2009 - 1:46pm Federal Government Northwestern Wisconsin Twin Ports


By Mike Simonson, Wisconsin Public Radio

WASHINGTON (WPR) Northwestern Wisconsin's congressman wants to start a war tax to pay for the cost of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Congressman Dave Obey and ten other Democratic House members are sponsoring the surtax to pay for the war in Afghanistan. Obey says if President Obama goes along with the recommendation by Afghanistan NATO Commander General McChrystal and adds more troops, it’ll cost $900 billion dollars over the next ten years. That’s the same cost as proposed healthcare overhaul. Obey says there’s a difference in that taxpayers are not being asked to pay for the war, but they are being asked to pay for health care.

Obey says the war in Afghanistan and Iraq has been paid for by borrowing money and has not been passed on to taxpayers, thus the bill's name “Share the Sacrifice”. He says the only people asked to sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq are military families, and if the war is to be pursued, the sacrifice should be shared.

Obey expects plenty of opposition to the war tax, but asks critics if they want to fight the war for the next ten years on the “installment plan, on the nation’s credit card”.

The war surtax would start in 2011. It would be a 1-percent graduated tax that would increase for higher income Americans, to about 5-percent for people earning half a million dollars a year.