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The fact that I want to raise taxes to pay for war costs we have incurred and will incur does not mean I like the wars. Where would you get a silly idea like that?
Let me walk you through this. Those wars have wrecked our federal budget. They have dramatically boosted the deficit. Because of that deficit, the Republicans now get away with trying to say that we can't "afford" health care reform. And the Democrats -- because they don't want an even bigger deficit -- are forced into asking for tax increases on the wealthy to pay for health care reform. Are you with me so far?
OK. Now, consider that we have already spent about $1 trillion on those wars and will, no doubt, spend many billions more. (Even if we adopted a speedy exit strategy, we'd be on the hook for massive future costs.) That leaves a gaping hole in the federal budget that has to be filled if we are to pay for things like universal health care.
The question is: How do we fill that hole. We could make universal into a "deficit neutral" proposition by raising taxes to pay for that. OR, we could attack the budget problem at its source by passing a war tax, and using the proceeds to refill federal coffers.
Once re-filled, those coffers could be tapped to pay for... well, gee.. maybe something like, you know... universal health coverage.
Just a thought.
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