A reader writes about the Democrats’ proposed War Tax:
While their (the Dems) motives are obvious, I have long been wondering how we as citizens can be asked to take more ownership of the war effort. It may only be in my fantasy land that a war tax would have the result of citizens becoming more invested in the success of our wars, but I can dream can’t I? Obviously the effect would be to drain support for the war effort since it would directly cost people money now, but isn’t that just a sad commentary on our culture today? Heaven forbid if we were asked to sacrifice like they did in the 40s.
Any ideas of how such a thing could be accomplished?
Here’s a counterproposal that I just floated to a congressman: how about you carve out a War Tax instead of adding it on? If the War Tax is to be $150 billion per year, let’s reduce marginal rates by that amount and impose the War Tax in its place. Then, once we’re out of Iraq, we can repeal the War Tax.
Then again, we were paying the Spanish-American War tax on phone service for something like a century, so maybe it isn’t such a good idea…