Pelosi nixes idea of ‘war tax’

Source: The Hill

All told, the Democratic proposal for an “Iraq tax” lasted about four hours. That’s roughly the amount of time from when House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) gave life to the idea with his endorsement to when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) strangled it.

“Just as I have opposed the war from the outset, I am opposed to a draft and I am opposed to a war surtax,” Pelosi said in a statement issued this afternoon.

Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) is the author of the tax proposal, which is still being written. The tax would be intended to raise roughly $150 billion for the war and consist of a surtax of 2 to 15 percent of a person’s income tax. A 2 percent surtax means that a person who otherwise would pay $100 in taxes would pay $102.

“If you don’t like the cost, then shut down the war,” Obey said in a news conference.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-nixes-idea-of-war-tax-2007-10-02.html

---

When one needs someone to cut their own party off at the knees, Pelosi is always your (wo)man.

:mad:

Oh, wait. She has a D in front of her name. It's getting so hard to tell the difference anymore.

The problem NP has is she still believes that if they raise taxes, any taxes, the GOP will waltz right back into the majority...

Can't stop the illegal war
Can't stop Bush
Can't protect the Constitution
Can't stop opening the treasury for Bushco
Can't even suggest taxing the ones benefiting from the war

...is there anything else she can do to help Bushco?

Now what . . .. ????

i had no idea we had so many wealthy people on DU, as for my household we are at the median income and struggling terribly with the price of food, gas, insurance, medicine -- we simply can't pay any more tax unless one of us is to give up eating

if there is to be a wartax, let it be on the corporate profits of those who are benefiting such as halliburton and exxon-mobile

not on the individual taxpayer

some ideas are just dumb from the get-go and for the democrats to dream up a new tax makes the war their fault and the costs their fault and neatly switches the blame away from where it belongs, squarely on the GOP which started the war in the first place

don't like the war, consider taking the profit out of it for halliburton -- which means getting cheney out of office first and foremost

some ideas are just such poor strategy that you have to entertain the possibilities of LSD in the proposer's soup

touch them. Put a war tax on them and they'll get the message and start screaming to stop the war! It's a good thing!

I had another glimmer of hope shot down.

Can't vote on something stuck in committee.

Pelosi and Obey will have to have a chat and settle this all out. Being a former Obey constituent and continued fan, I have to say he's a stubborn man once he gets a hold of an idea. He might have set his starting place in negotiations rather high, but he'll get something out of this.

They don't have to bring war funding bills to the floor, yet they do time and time again!

Between the TD not stopping the printing of the Dollar, (bringing it down to new lows) and the borrowing of $ from China, we havent felt anything yet.

this is like the stupidest idea ever and if i were in politics and esp, if i were nancy pelosi i'd be looking hard at the person who proposed it as someone who is a mole -- no i wouldn't throw around public accusations but that person would never have my trust again

the war started by republicans, paid for w. money stolen from our social security by republicans -- with a tax like this would be re-branded as a democratic war

stupid, stupid, stupid, worst idea ever

I'm not paying to subsidize this shit. I want us out of there. If the House and Senate want to fund this war, the money should come out of THEIR pockets first.

time for the people to pay for this war.

Sorry if I don't agree with you.

And yes, we watch our money like hawks, but only taxes and a draft, aka having to pay for this, will wake the people up

but... they want to continue the war until 2013, so I guess we need to keep this as far from the average american as we can

why pay for it when we can pass it to our children and grandchildren.

We need to adopt more republican values like this.

the upper 1-2% who have been making out like bandits the past few years get smacked first, then a lower tax to make people more aware, with a tax of 85-90% on the profits of every corp. who has a defense contract. The defense contractors would be screaming to shut Iraq down first!

Not gonna happen, but it is my fantasy.

I'm all in favor of a war surtax, but it should kick in at the top 5-10% of income (Cap gains included) and progress up to 20-30% at the highest levels. We should also have a stiff windfall profits tax on corporations.

Oh, and make both of these taxes retroactive to the start of the war.

(BTW, this would probably cost me a few thousand $$ -- depending on where the cutoff was -- but I'd vote for it in a second).

i have no problem w. a war surtax on dick cheney, i have a problem w. a war surtax on the people who have already been robbed to pay for the war, not just of any little cash they might have had in social security for their future but in some cases also of their children or of their health and sanity

how much more are we supposed to sacrifice? we have nothing as it is

should be brought to light. Instead we are borrowing from China and SA. I hear your pain, but either you pay now or your children will pay 100 times over. This idea of war tax would at least bring the argument of who should pay to the attention of the general public if a tax was proposed.

self edited for bad spelling and grammar.

because that option is certainly on the table with me.

Has she accomplished a single thing that she promised to get elected ?

As far as I can see she has stabbed America in the back (starting with our soldiers).

Cheers
Drifter

California has the recall option but that won't happen

And she has accomplised some of her domestic agenda, to be fair, but her innaction in other matters will cost US the majority in the House

Not to mention the destruction of the rule of law here.

and that goes for both parties at this point

States have no constitutional authority to recall members of the federal government.

could clean her fucking clock in S.F...

Of course, the fact that she's one of the VERY richest House members couldn't have ANYTHING to do with it, right? :sarcasm:

:puke:

Again I must wonder if illegal domestic surveillance, blackmail and her hubby's interests have anything to do with this crap.

she should fucking quit! :grr:

that swamp we know as the beltway. I would suggest that tha assumption is wrong.

Her journey to the DLC Dark Side is complete.

:wtf: does she think she got elected for? :grr:

threatened to kill her grandchildren? We work our butts off to give these folks power -- and then they won't use it! God help us all.

The world can't wait, Gore in '08!

He has too much Intelligence, Integrity and Honesty, to ever be suited for this joke of a government.

I PRAY he would run, but perhaps he sees what he's up against, the GOD DAMNED So-Called Leaders we have running things, and figures it would be a waste of his time and effort.

This country is like a scripted reality show. And coming in 2008....QUEEN HILLARY.

At least in the movies she has guts, is honest and tries to do the correct things. :shrug:

You're right - it's crazy out there.

Why raise taxes to pay for something, when we can BORROW MORE FUCKING MONEY FROM THE CHINESE & JAPANESE, and Mortgage The Next Generation!!

PLEASE OH PLEASE, let this economy collapse like a house of cards. There is no other fucking way that we're ever going to change, unless something dramatic happens.

We don't deserve what we have, and we're just going to continue BORROWING & BORROWING ourselves into oblivion.

What a Fucked Up Country we are.

And don't worry....I know what you're thinking.....Why don't you leave this country? Believe me, I have money in foreign currencies and in gold, and when the time comes, I'll hopefully be more prepared to move to Europe and escape this joke of a government.

:grr:

she was a true liberal. Unfortunately she turned out to be worst of the worst.

can't hardly stand to look at her...we sure have been had...

:mad: Why doesn't she just hold hands with lieberman?

Any Dem spending elicts calls for funding it by cutting somewhere else, yet the war gets funded outside the budget. The Iraq war has been entirely optional spending by the GOP administration, where are they getting the money?

How did we ever put this "impeachment is off the table" woman in a leadership position? Or is it "leadersheep?"

Making people pay for the war, and pay heavily, will bring about its end.

Our Democratic Speaker of the House immediately speaks out against it.

What's wrong with this picture?

At the very least, she could have reserved her comments until after the tax proposal was written and fully offered.

UGH. What a disappointment Pelosi is turning out to be.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21104662/

"...would require low- and middle-income taxpayers to add 2 percent to their tax bill"



If anything, why not just tax the rich who can afford it? The poor and middle class are already struggling enough. And a lot of those folks won't understand "you are paying more because of the war" ... they'll understand "tax and spend democrat" coming from the Republican side. Every Republican will use every opportunity they get to hammer in that Democrats are raising taxes on the poor.

Increasing the taxes is a spineless and stupid solution. Cutting off the funds for that f*cking war is what they need to do.

a war surtax on the class that has already surrendered their social security and their children is totally unfair and insane

Now I am waiting for the replies calling me a troll, DLCer, or republican for not supporting a tax on the poor and not bashing Pelosi.

In other words, a tax on those who can most afford it and those who have benefited the most from this war. Raising taxes on the working poor just seems needlessly cruel.

This is yet another example of why we need to get true progressive populists into government.

However, at this time, it has the same chance of passing as the war tax. As long as most Republicans stand behind Bush, he'll be able to veto anything that is passed.

It seems that a majority now favors reducing the war funding:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hVXmVmSgbAtmOMu2pep_FKHuNArg

"While 27 percent said they would give a green light to the funding, a hefty 43 percent of those surveyed said they wanted the budget for those conflicts reduced sharply; and another 23 percent said they wanted the funding lowered somewhat. Three percent said no funding should be approved and three percent had no opinion, the poll found."

If there is any war tax, it should be paid by the rich.

The war needs to end yesterday AND we need to pay for what we've already done. It's just sick what's happened to this country in just a few years.

She's probably right, in the long run. Even though I think it's important to debate the surtax, and I don't like the way the Republicans have concealed the cost of the war--and its impact on the lives of American citizens--from the voters/taxpayers, it's not an idea that's likely to garner much popular support. I personally think it should be voluntary: if you support the war, you pay for it.

His initial refusal to give $87 billion dollars back in 2003 is how the "flip-flopping" argument got started in the first place.

We are witnessing one sorry performance from this woman.

Remember Hillary Swank winning the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a transgender man in the biopic Boys Don't Cry?

Boys Don't Cry (film)

Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 LGBT independent drama film based on the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a young transman who was raped and murdered by his male friends after they found out he had female genitalia on December 30, 1993. The film features Hilary Swank as Brandon Teena and Chloë Sevigny as Brandon's girlfriend Lana Tisdel.

Boys Don’t Cry received overwhelmingly positive acclaim from critics, especially the two lead performances from Swank and Sevigny, and considering its reasonably low budget, and independent production, it was a box office success, with most of the success coming from word of mouth and critical views. Swank was awarded the 1999 Academy Award for Best Actress, and Sevigny was nominated for the Academy Award in the category of Best Supporting Actress.

The film is set in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Falls City, Nebraska but was filmed in Greenville, Texas, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Dallas.. Its release was concurrent with the murder of gay teen Matthew Shepard, which sparked additional public interest in the film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_Don%27t_Cry_%28film%29

....if we had somebody who actually cared about us, a war-tax could be used as cover to free up other money for social spending....

....of course, we don't have anybody who cares about us; now if we were a corporation....

Pelosi thinks voters expect nothing from her, except more kisses and hugs for the White House!

Democrats should present this President with a choice, either pay the political price for this war or else lose all funding for it. Bush's father made the correct decision, he paid the political price..but without sacrificing thousands of Americans in Kuwait.

it's time for Pelosi to earn her position, is she willing to harm this President? if this President isn't willing to give up his precious taxcuts, he better be prepared to give something up. otherwise divided government only represents another failure of the human race.

It probably wouldn't have passed and if it did, Bush wouldn't sign it. And even if it was put in effect, how would it force an end to the war?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12461951@N03/

imagine that.
:dunce:

It was the perfect solution to the impotency of the Democratic strategy. And she is blowing it. Makes me want to puke.

What better way to drive the freepers into spasms than to pin fiscal irresponsibility on them for 20 or 30 years. Think of the sound bites

"when you spend too much money, you have to cut up the credit card. We just took the scissors to the thugs credit cards."

"when thugs took you to war, they didn't pay the bill themselves, they pinned the bill on two future generations of Americans."

"when thugs bullied you into war, they forgot to tell you what it was really going to cost."

"thugs have only one principle. thugs start a war now, you pay later."

"with this tax, the dork in chief has a choice. Accept responsibility for the financial damage you have done to the United States for the next 20 years, or end the war."