Sweet Jeebus.
Impeachment is off the table. Defunding is off the table. And now, it seems that even raising taxes to pay for the war is now off the table.
Sure, Raising taxes can be scary. Any potentially politically unpopular decision can be scary. But, that’s kinda what leadership is all about.
The war tax idea came from Rep. James McGovern: raise $150 billion with a 2% to 15% surtax on your tax bill… Not a percentage of your income; a percentage of the income tax you pay, ie, if you owe a $1000 tax bill, you pay $1200.
Not such a bad idea; fiscally responsible, even. And politically clever: reframes the war debate around the cost to the taxpayer.
Worth chewing over, you might say… well, here’s how The Hill described what happened today:
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.
She’s not wasting any time– for chrissake, the legislation isn’t even written yet!!
And here’s my thing: Even if you never intend to go there, why on earth wouldn’t you keep it around as a bargaining chip? Have you never negotiated before? And if you haven’t, what on earth are you doing in that job?
I’m sooo done with Nancy Pelosi.
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The dustbin of history waits for thee.
I have always thought, well, since she stated “off the table”, that Pelosi sort of reminded me of a disease, like pleurisy, a stagnation at lung, or Montezuma’s revenge.
I don’t know how to dump a speaker except to cut of his/her mike.
But to cure a disease takes drugs. Which I intend to take to ward off the pelosies, hoping to quash the contagion.
of “Profiles in Courage 2007”, which also includes various missed votes by the presidential candidates.
her blood-stained speaker’s gavel out after her.
She’s handed Crawford’s Village Idiot $250 billion for his Iraq fiasco so far this year and she’ll give him more whenever he tells her to.
Having a Speaker with shit for brains has not been a pleasant experience.
if she’s out, hoyer’s in- and he’s worse.
She values the election more than the lives of our servicemen/women. This is foolish because Americans want action, not pandering. Just because Bush could win elections by being a shit doesn’t mean we should follow suit.
To be simplistic–and accurate, when Nancy took the constitution off the table, she folded, she enabled the insanity that is Bush, she signaled to the world that Bush is us. She’s not getting kicked out of the Dem party, I am.
…the Speaker “took him to the woodshed” over his support of Obey’s bill.
So the Speaker’s “opposed to the war, opposed to a draft & opposed to a war surtax”… Sounds to me like she’s just opposed to Opposition of Bush in any way. If anyone in the Democratic Party attempts to show opposition, she’s quick to step all over them. Why? I wish I knew. I do know that she’s failed the majority of Americans who voted for Democrats to stop the bush warmongering, she’s failed the troops, and she’s failed her party.