Are Some Democrats Getting a Spine?

By Editors Pick

November 25, 2009 "Stellaa's Blog" --  So, now that we are not gonna dither and probably send thousands of troops into Afghanistan, lets talk about paying for it.  

Well, it seems some Democrats are proposing, in the same way that we have to find the money for social programs, that if we want to continue and or escalate the war, we should find the money to pay for war.  

Since it seems that the National Press and our Republicans discovered the National Deficit--something that did not seem to bother anyone when we went on our expedition in Iraq.   I guess when they were voting for the wars and borrowing for the wars, while voting for tax cuts, deficits did not matter.   

David Brooks laments the Healthcare Bill, he says it would hurt our vitality:

Reform would make us a more decent society, but also a less vibrant one. It would ease the anxiety of millions at the cost of future growth. It would heal a wound in the social fabric while piling another expensive and untouchable promise on top of the many such promises we’ve already made. America would be a less youthful, ragged and unforgiving nation, and a more middle-aged, civilized and sedate one.

Mr.  Brooks, what of our vitality when our resources and energy is spent on war?  That never came up in your columns before.  

 The Democrats, at least some, are saying, ok, since you are so eager, lets vote for a 1% surtax on anyone with income over $200,000.  

Imagine if the Democrats pushed for that back when the Iraq war was first proposed.  Oh, I forgot, the oil revenues were gonna pay for it and we were gonna be out of there in a jiffy, of course after they put up statues to Bush.  

Who are the Democrats displaying vestiges of a spine :  

Carl Levin, Michigan.  

David Obey, Wisconsin.

  

"We have been fighting for a year to try to pass health care - it costs about 900 billion dollars - and we are being told that we have to pay for every dime of it," Obey said on "Washington Unplugged." "But if we adopt a plan that General McChrystal is talking about, we are also being told that we have to hunker down and be ready for a decade long or more commitment. If we do that the cost will also be about 900 billion dollars – the difference is that we are not being asked to pay for that. And we think that if we are being asked to pay for health care, we certainly should start paying for the war."

As long as we do not make the war hawks  pay as they go, we will drain all our resources to fight wars that we should not be fighting. The escalation in Afghanistan is the continuation of a wrongheaded campaign.  If you raise the issue of war cost, you get we must support our troops.  

If this is what is being suggested, lets pass the tax. Since most of the war pain is on the backs of poor Americans, time for the rich to give a piece of their hide.  I want to see some of the rich make the sacrifice that the people forced to enter the military as their only possible means of making a living.