The Tax to End the War--and 3 Cheers for Norah O'Donnell (MSNBC)

First, Norah. Peter Hoekstra, outgoing (what a great feeling to write that word!) Chair of the House Intelligence (one must ask whether the Committee will now deserve that word to describe it) Committee, started dissembling about the time needed to analyze the ISG report, when Norah cut in, "c'mon, this war has been going on for more than 3 years, and people are dying, what's this about delay?". Hoekstra then mumbled something incoherent, and Norah quickly ended the interview.

Finally, some one in the elite media gets it. Yes, people are dying. They are also losing limbs and psyches at an alarming rate: it is now a battalion per month lost to death or injury.

In a prior article I compared this to "Pork Chop Hill" in the Korean War ( Growing Immorality, Creeping Complicity). John Kerry's Vietnam war testimony, "how do you ask the last man to die for a mistake?" is another formulation. Good job, Norah, keep it up. [And, don't let Matthews back until he starts laying it out like that]. You might consider going to the next question, are any of their children volunteering in Iraq? (See, Ultimate Accountability: The Conspiracy of Silence).

We have had more than enough of these bombastic bloviators, including our bloviator-in-chief, who fiddles with rhetoric about freedom while Iraq burns. It's the cost, stupid: in lives, in limbs, in treasure, in weakening our defenses, in alienating the rest of the world.

The Tax to End the War. One of the ISG's recommendations was to include the cost of the war in the budget, not in supplementals. This may seem techno-gibberish, but it matters. "Off" budget, it is not subject to counting. "Off" budget, and it will not be subject to "pay-as-you-go" rules the Dems are about to reinstate.

So, here's the plan. Enact the "pay-go" rule. Put the Iraq War expenditures "on" budget. Then, enact a tax on people making over $300,000 per year (include salaries, cap gains, dividends) at whatever level to pay for the Iraq War costs. These are the people most likely to contribute to politicians election campaigns, and are thus most influential. As the war begins to cost this group, the pressure to end it among the elites will build. It might be satisfying to include a special assessment against those, like Halliburton, who profited from the war, but keeping it simple makes its quick enactment more likely.

But, don't just enact the tax. Sunset it. When US troops leave Iraq (or, if you must, when the number is no greater than "X"), the tax self-destructs, disappears, vanishes. In addition to tying the tax, and thus tax relief, to the war, sunsetting also blunts the inevitable rants about any tax that have become knee-jerk radical rightwing reactions.

As important as the tax itself, it will be instructive to follow the response to the proposal. Listen to the patriotism of Bush's friends when they are asked to share the sacrifice in a small way. Watch the radical rightwing scramble to block its enactment. They might even roll out Tom DeLay, who said (as pointed out by David Sirota, in his book, "Hostile Takeover") on the eve of the Iraq invasion, "there is nothing more important when you are going to war than cutting taxes".