PAYGO- How to end the war

Forget timelines and drawdowns and defunding the troops. The answer to getting the troops out of Iraq and remaining in the political sunshine is PAYGO = Pay As You Go.

We are paying in lives on a daily basis, but that doesn't seem to deter war lovers. I think MONEYis how you get the attention of fencesitters on the republican side. Voices will be raised if IRAQ is equated with TAXES.

We've got to speak their language.

We've been having the wrong argument. We should agree to everything and anything the republicans want, with the caveat, we pay for it now.

Fiscal responsibility trumps supporting the troops anyday with republicans. (Or so they say. Nevermind that troublesome book Mr. Greenspan just put out.)

Mr. Bush can roll back his taxcuts or make up a new WARTAX. It doesn't matter to us. We just won't continue to OK supplementals. The war must become part of the annual budget, and it must be paid for. That extra $50 billion Bush is asking for. Fine. He can have it. But only on the condition, it's paid for. Let's tax all those ill-gotten corporate gains being made at our expense.

We could have universal healthcare, social security paid for, $500,000 billion invested in alternative energy sources, freedom from the the threat of Chinese refusal to buy our debt, $10 billion invested in AIDS research, New Orleans rebuilt. The list goes on and on.

We can never win the "cut and run" debate, or the "defund the troops" debate.

We can win the "Let's pay for it" debate.

Even if the troops are not out of there tomorrow, not leaving this war to be paid for by our kids and grandkids is a step towards making things right.

Call your senator, representative, and presidential candidate. Ask him/her to demand this war be paid for by the people waging it. It's your Patriotic Duty.

•  I've advocated this for a long time

  It doesn't play well with my conservative acquaintences.

  They are quite happy to send other people's kids to die; but raise taxes to pay for Bush's criminal enterprise? No way.

  by slatsg on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 05:43:42 PM PDT

  •  I've advocated for it as well...

    When Bush threatened a veto of the first Iraq supplemental because of the timelines, and people were asking what to send back in its place, I said we should send him a paygo bill and let him veto that.  Send him a bill that rolls back the tax cuts on the wealthiest 1% of the country to pay for it, and let him try to explain that veto to working class America...

    by AnotherMassachusettsLiberal on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 05:59:17 PM PDT

  •  It's Brilliant! wish we had pushed for it sooner

    • I never thought of it.

    by joan reports on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 06:21:21 PM PDT

•  There are so many creative ways

  to foreground the fiscal problems of the war.  Why not sell Victory Bonds, for example?  No / low interest bonds (they can have springing rates that are triggered by the achievement of some set of benchmarks), for example.  That way wingers can put their wallets where their mouths are.

  by burrow owl on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 06:01:55 PM PDT

•  Excellent! thank you!!!! n/t

  by ExStr8 on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 07:04:43 PM PDT

•  THE PATRIOT TAX

  The Patriot Tax.

  Opening Ceremony, with brass band, uniformed service members, flowers, velvet curtains....and ...in the spotlight:

  The President, VP, Cabinet
  Members of Congress

  They each take out their checkbooks, write a check to pay their fair share.

  Get the ball rolling.

  by LNK on Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 07:46:46 PM PDT

•  bad idea

  Since the war is a Bad Thing(tm) passing a tax to fund it can not be good. Inevitably, the corporate special interests will twist it into something that falls heaviest on ordinary Americans.

  re: "Voices will be raised if IRAQ is equated with TAXES."

  The same objective can be achieved by making the honest point that deficit spending IS the spending of tax money. Furthermore, it's mega-scale counterfeiting, dependent on the Federal Reserve artificially inflating the money supply on a continuing basis, thereby stealing purchasing power from the dollars held by consumers.

  by bradspangler on Sun Sep 16, 2007 at 09:09:49 AM PDT