I know that it is hard to believe, but other things are going on in DC besides health care reform.  The House has already passed their health care bill and they are working on other business.  The Senate has also been doing other things besides health care reform, although most of the air in the Senate has been taken up with this one issue.

I was really interested to read an article in The Hill about Democratic Congresspeople introducing legislation to create a surtax to pay for the Afghan War so its costs will not expand the deficit.  Needless to say, this puts Republican lawmakers between a rock and a hard place.  After all, they say this war must be enlarged but they don’t like taxes.  However, they also have been raising holy hell about the deficit.  So, what do they do?

I am not really enthusiastic about new taxes.  I am also not enthusiastic about this war or deficit spending to conduct it.  I will let you read the article so you can draw your own conclusions.

From The Hill:

Should the bill pass, the surtax would come into effect in 2011 and would pay off war costs from the previous year. Democratic lawmakers previously introduced a similar measure to fund the Iraq War that failed to pass through Congress.

The measure has attracted eight co-sponsors, all of whom are House Democrats: Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank (Mass.), Anna Eshoo (Calif.), Sam Farr (Calif.), Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairman Raul Grijalva (Ariz.), Betty McCollum (Minn.), Jim McDermott (Wash.), Jim McGovern (Mass.), and Linda Sanchez (Calif.)

“We believe that if this war is to be fought, it’s only fair that everyone share the burden. That’s why we are offering legislation to impose a graduated surtax so that the cost of the war is not borrowed,” the three sponsors said.

Read the rest here  http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/68775-dem-lawmakers-introduce-afghan-war-surtax

It is my hope that President starts a wind down to this war.  I believe it is time for the United States to begin to take care of the pressing issues here at home and forget an unwinnable battle in Afghanistan.

War costs lives as well as dollars. If the hawks insist this Afghanistan War continue then they must make the hard decisions about how the costs will be paid. They cannot scream about deficit spending on everything but war and get away with it.