To pay for the next war…we raise taxes, cut spending elsewhere?
The Armed Services full committee meeting in light of the end of the latest round of talks with Iran and harsher sanctions (oil embargo) scheduled to take effect, points us to the need to figure out how to pay for another conflict that is not quick and victorious.
The Washington Post quotes Senator Leahy:
At last, after 11 years of the United States at war, a few minutes of public discussion of a tax to pay for the fighting. But that would be for the next war.
“What would be the impact of going to war again without committing to pay for that war with up-front taxes, something we did not do in either Iraq or Afghanistan, for the first time in the history of the country?” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asked Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta at a Senate Defense Appropriation subcommittee hearing on June 13.
That’s a question that should be asked before any president sends U.S. forces into a fight overseas or members of Congress propose legislation that authorizes some sort of military action abroad.
“We basically ran that war [Iraq] on a credit card,” Leahy told Panetta, who was there to discus the fiscal 2013 Defense Appropriations bill. “Now we find people who are calling for more military action in other parts of the world; at the same time, they do not want to consider any way of paying for it.”
Maybe if we keep pretending we can pay for them with war and oil profits, not to mention imports to grateful new citizens of new American type democracies, one day, maybe, we actually can.
When will all us liberals wake up and accept that America is the land of the free lunch; until it isn’t.
Actually has not Obama at least had the decency to include the wars in the budget deficit unlike his predecessor who considered them off budget? It is really hard to focus much opposition to the U.S. being constantly at war when it only affects a small segment of the population. I am sure that when Dumbya wanted to invade Iraq, if Congress had said sure but there will be a 2% surcharge on all income taxes paid for every year we are engaged to pay for it, Saddam would still be alive and running Iraq.
Terry:
You would be correct on the off budget and on budget in which case the excursions contribute to the current deficit and Obama picks up the cheque for the last decade also.