A Surtax to Pay for the Iraq War Would be Great…

This entry was posted in Iraq Taxation on by

Thomas Friedman gets 2 out of 3.
He rightfully hammers bush mouthpiece dana perino, acknowledges that wars ought to be paid for in real time and then continues his support fo the Iraq debacle:

Of course, the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the Democrat David Obey, in proposing an Iraq war tax to help balance the budget was expressing his displeasure with the war. But he was also making a very important point when he said, “If this war is important enough to fight, then it ought to be important enough to pay for.”
The struggle against radical Islam is the fight of our generation. We all need to pitch in — not charge it on our children’s Visa cards.

How should a war be financed?
Setting aside for now the moral absurdity of this question lets get to the answer.
Taxes of one kind or another are the pretty obvious method. You either reallocate funds already being collected or you add new taxes. In the case of Iraq and Afghanistan there are no funds to reallocate so additional taxation is required. But who should pay those taxes?
A number of suggestions have been proposed for obey’s war tax. For example, Mark Thoma says:

I don’t think that now is the right time to raise taxes given the weakness in the economy,…
…what if the rich and powerful had been told that their tax cuts would have to wait until the war ended, …
Being forced to pay for a war I don’t support would tick me off, but that’s the point — by making the public fully internalize the cost of the nation’s decision to go to war (including the human cost), it will motivate more pressure to bring this war to an end.

Sounds pretty much like a take back the tax cuts argument which implies that whoever received the benefit of the bush tax cuts should pay for the war. Mark wavers on paying for the war now because of weakness in the economy but it seems that that is part of the point of those that argue that the war would end if the costs were internalized. On the other hand if Hale Stewart is correct about the real source of the economic strength of the past few years then Mark’s argument re the economy’s current weakness may not be that strong.
Mark should be ticked off anyway. He and his kids are paying for the war one way or another just like the rest of us.
Ron Beasley provides a a slightly different target for a war tax:

I have thought for some time that the quickest way to end the war would be to add a surtax to the incomes of the top ten percent, the bloated oil company profits and the profits of the largest corporations. These groups would be ready to pull out in no time.

He is exactly right that a surtax should be imposed. He and Mark are both exactly wrong on whom it should be imposed.
The only even marginally ethical method of paying for a war is for those who support the war to pay for it. Yes, only those who support the war and no one else no matter how small or large their income.
The mechanism should be relatively easy for the IRS to set up:

  • Either by mail or online you periodically tell the IRS that you support the war (it shoudl be opt in) though governments and business prefer opt out
  • The war costs $x for a collection period
  • The estimated taxable income of the war supports is $y for the collection period
  • Each supporting tax payer pays $x/$y % of their estimated income each collection period; before deductions

No progressivity. If you are going to support a war you pay for it.
What might the impact be. Well, in 2006 personal wage and labor income(pdf) was $6.989 Trillion. If 50% of this income supported the war a 6% surtax would give the bushies about $210 billion to play with.
If only 30% of the income supported the war a 10% surtax would generate $210 billion. There is no excuse for not making the war’s supporters pay.

There is also no excuse for the Iraq war. It would probably have ended a few years ago. If it even managed to get funding to start!

Friday Ark #159

This entry was posted in Bird Blogging Cat Blogging Dog Blogging Friday Ark Invertebrate Blogging Pet Blogging Pets Weekend Cat Blogging Weekend Dog Blogging on by

We’ll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and….?

Visit all the boarders, Link to the Ark and check back for updates through Sunday afternoon!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cool Animal Meme: Regualar contributor Bora (with a bost from Anton) has launched a nifty Interesting Animal Meme. You are now tagged! Go play!

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn’t Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey’s Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 184th edition, 9/30, is up at Life from a Cat’s Perspective . The 185th edition will be hosted on 10/7 by Stranger Ranger. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #120 hosted on 10/6-7 by Paulchen’s Food Blog?!. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Birders: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 59th edition is up and hosted by Naturalist Notebook. The 60th edition will be hosted on 10/18 by the Search and Serendipity.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 25th edition is up and hosted by The annotated budak. The 26th edition will be hosted at the end of October by The Other 95%.

For other current carnivals check out The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.