War is expensive, and it’s about to get more so if the U.S. government escalates its military efforts in Afghanistan. […]Over the past eight years, the nearly $1 trillion cost of the military’s efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan was essentially charged to the national credit card.
Will it be different this time?
There’s some chance lawmakers may opt to pay the bill as it comes due, rather than letting the balance and interest accrue. It’s not the first time the idea has come up, but it may be the first time the idea is given serious consideration.
A big part of the context for deciding whether and how to pay for a buildup are the growing deficits that have become a political and financial albatross. The country’s accumulated debt is expected to rise from $12 trillion today to $21 trillion by the end of 2019.
Some lawmakers are pushing for a war tax. Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, took part in the latest war council meeting. And Obama is expected to raise the cost issue in his Tuesday evening address at West Point.
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Wow, another tax to pay for a war that isn’t accomplishing anything. That sucks. After all these years, where’s bin Laden?
It pays for itself…it’s the poppies, remember? Plus we get to tax the shit out of people on the other end for the war on drugs… It’s a win win for jobs saved or created.
I would suggest letting the corporate world pay for it..they got all our money anyway.
How will we pay? Like always, with a draft and the blood of our young.
Hey Obama supporters…how about that promise that the first thing Obama would do is bring the troops home? How is that working out?
Cue the crickets…….
Pay for it with Iraqi oil money. If that’s not enough invade Iran and use their oil money.
I dunno. Aren’t we supposed to “take that to the bank” or something?
Hand the country over to Russia.
Just tax GWB & VP-JC Team 100%,
and those that voted for the Iraqi war 80%,
and those that voted for the above into office,
and the pro-war lobbyist 50%,
and those that supported-fund the above.
Why not let CNN, Fox and other news-networks pay too.
They are the ones making a lot of profit with wars like these…
Here’s an idea: If you truly are not in favour of the government killing people in your name, then stop paying them to do so. People are dying, and your tax dollars make it all possible. So stop whining and watch the bodies stack up, or man up and choose to keep the money that you earn.
StoopidFlanders: apparently you’re a troll, and to be ignored.
Hello #13. I am presenting an alternative point of view; perhaps slightly more libertarian in this case. By all means, you are welcome to ignore me. I’m going to go out of my way and suppose your solution to Afghanistan is to just bury our collective heads in the sand and allow our glorious comrade-Bama to handle things, right? War is scary, we shouldn’t think about these things or offer different ideas on the matter, right?
Make Timothy Geithner pay income tax.
or
Charge the troops $10K each for their return flight from Afghanistan/Iraq/Whatever-shithole-we’ve-stuck-them-inistan.
Sell the Vatican. Pay for all the wars and money left over to pay for medical care for all the world.
Wouldn’t that be what Jesus would want?
Get protection money from countries we are protecting or, if they refuse, establish savings by withdrawing our man and basis. EU, Japan, S.Korea, Saudi Arabia,… just to name few.
For those claiming that we didn’t need these wars: please explain what estimated 100000 killed terrorists would be doing in mean time. I say at least 1% of them would found their way here… (As for deniers who’d say that wars are recruiting these people: which war recruited 9/11 bunch and others before that…? Maybe those wars US participated on Muslim side in Kuwait or Bosnia?)
#17. Jeez…another moron.
Casinos.
In addition to the Indian Casinos, we could open casinos designed to provided additional revenue for specific segments of government funding.
Where is the choice “add it to the cost of gasoline….”, oh wait, they did that already, it should be “add more to the cost of gasoline so that the poor get hurt more than the rich”.
Whatever happened to the good ol’ days, when the conquerors simply pillaged the country they dominated; to pay for the war? I know this sounds unreasonable in this day and age, but when it comes right down to it, its the logical thing to do. That is war, isn’t it? Logical but unreasonable? This is why Americans shouldn’t fight such wars; it only makes sense if you extend the empire. And we’re not empire builders, or at least we’re not good at it.
it can be paid for with all the bonuses the bankers are making.. 😛
i say if any more banks fail we should send those bankers to afganistan 🙂
that should clear up the problems in the banks really quick.
Two Ways:
Restore the Progressive Income Tax !!! Let the Millionaires and Billionaires pay !!! They STOLE ALL THE MONEY ANY WAY – TIME TO GIVE IT BACK !!!
AND
Remove the CEILING ON SOCIAL SECURITY TAXES !!! Again, Let the Millionaires and Billionaires pay !!! They ought to be glad they live in a Coountry that made their success possible !!!
BOTTOM LINE: SOAK THE RICH !!!
Why not have a minimum 5% income tax on the 50% of Americans who now pay NONE.
Just leave. We can send in commandos\cruise missiles as needed, not like the Afghan gov’t can do anything about it.
We made an utter mess out of Iraq, but nobody can honestly say we screwed up Afghanistan. It couldn’t have been much worse.
Anyone who thinks we ought to gear up, just ask yourself what it will look like when we leave. Afghanistan isn’t even in the last century, much less this one.
Take it out of the israeli foreign aid budget. That’s who all of these wars are for after all.
Unleash our prisoners at the foreign scum. If the convicts subdue the place they can get out on parole. It would be like that movie The Dirty Dozen. Have our PBS employees film the mess and charge admission in theaters to pay down the national debt.
Use the left over stimulus money? Wars do create jobs and the claim is it worked during WWII.
That we are even talking about how to pay things represents real change in Washington.
When the conservatives where in charge, the subject never even came up.
(well, except by us libs but the cons called us “troop haters” for even raising the issue of how to pay for things.)
What? we’re still in Afghanistan? But I thought Obama was going to CHANGE all that. And Bush was a monkey for being there… Oh, never mind.
RBG
The war only costs so much because you have all this expensive equipment and people expect to get paid … but you don’t need all that to prosecute a war, do you? You just need crazy people, lots of them, and a way to wind them up and point them in the general direction of Afghanistan.
For example, if you tell Christians that the Afghanis killed Baby Jesus and stole the Holy Grail, you can start a new Crusade. Or, tell Hindus that they eat cows there, or tell China that there’s coal in them thar hills. You don’t need fancy equipment when you can put millions of expendable, bloodthirsty fanatics on the ground.