War Brings Death and No Taxes

American citizens have yet to pay for the war against terrorism in the Middle East.

From the Minnesotan Daily:

Last week White House press secretary Dana Perino rejected the idea of an Iraq war tax, which was proposed by House Appropriations Chairman Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.). Said Perino: "We've always known that Democrats seem to revert to type, and they are willing to raise taxes on just about anything." Yet, President George W. Bush and his administration have disregarded the Republican type of fiscal responsibility for this current war.

By the end of this year, Congress estimates the total funds appropriated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be nearly $600 billion. A 2006 Harvard and Columbia University study estimated the eventual cost of the wars at $2 trillion. Much of the money spent has not been paid for or accounted into the U.S. deficit because war funding has been provided through emergency supplemental bills. These bills, which have been used to finance wars since the Korean War, allow the U.S. government to wage war without an immediate economic impact on the American people. As a result, a war may be fought without any sacrifice from the citizen - only the soldier.

As the Iraq war drags on, taxes have not been raised, but instead continually cut by the Bush administration and the complacent past Republican majority in Congress. A country cannot sustain itself - properly pay for scientific research, infrastructure maintenance, education development, national security, etc. - when taxes are not raised to supplement the additional costs of war. The Bush administration is the first to cut taxes during wartime in over 200 years. Therefore the cost of the Iraq war will not be paid by the men and women of President Bush's generation. The bill will instead come due for their children's generation.

Perino continued, saying a war tax was "completely fiscally irresponsible."Alan Greenspan, the personification of fiscal conservatism, recently told the Wall Street Journal, "The Republican Party, which ruled the House, the Senate and the presidency, I no longer recognize."

It is the Bush administration that is completely fiscally irresponsible. Its decisions have led to not only the countless deaths of Americans and Iraqis, but will also lead to financial hardships this country has yet to experience.