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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (532013)	11/23/2009 5:39:49 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1575626

Finally, some sanity on our deficits and the impact of wars... Top Dem to Obama: 'There Ain't Going to Be Money for Nothing if We Pour It All Into Afghanistan' Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be Sent By JONATHAN KARL WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2009 abcnews.go.com House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to pay for it." Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin, made it clear that he is absolutely opposed to sending any more U.S. troops to Afghanistan and says if Obama decides to do that, he'll demand a new tax -- what he calls a "war surtax" -- to pay for it. "On the merits, I think it is a mistake to deepen our involvement," Obey said. "But if we are going to do that, then at least we ought to pay for it. Because if we don't, if we don't pay for it, the cost of the Afghan war will wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy." "I want the president and every American to think ahead of time about what it means if you do add to our involvement in Afghanistan," Obey told ABC News. "I am no military strategist, but I don't believe we have the tools to accomplish our mission in Afghanistan because you have to have functioning, effective government and there isn't one in Afghanistan. There isn't one in Pakistan either." According to Obey, that would bring the cost of the war up to approximately $90 billion a year, or $900 billion over 10 years -- virtually the same as the cost of the Democratic health care plan. "That's what happened with the Vietnam War, which wiped out [President Lyndon Johnson's social program] the Great Society," Obey said. "That's what happened with the Korean War, which wiped out Harry Truman's Square Deal. That's what happened with the end of the progressive movement before the '20s when we went into World War I. In each case, the cost of those wars shut off our ability to pay for anything else."