Carl Levin undermines the war effort
November 20, 2009 No Comments
Read between the lines kids, read between the lines.
Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said higher-income Americans should be taxed to pay for additional troops sent to Afghanistan and that NATO should provide half of the new soldiers.
An “additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000,” could fund more troops, Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in an interview for Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has estimated that each additional soldier in Afghanistan could cost $1 million, for a total that could reach $40 billion if 40,000 more troops are added.
That cost, Levin said, should be paid by wealthier taxpayers. “They have done incredibly well, and I think that it’s important that we pay for it if we possibly can” instead of increasing the federal debt load, the senator said.
Levin isn’t seriously considering passing a war tax on the wealthy. He is trying to scare wealthy taxpayers in hopes of reducing their support for the war. Levin opposes the war so he is making statements that, he hopes, well weaken support for it.
When Levin voted to spend $787 billion on stimulus pork, he didn’t threaten to raise taxes. The budget for Afghanistan he describes is about 5% of the stimulus boondoggle he supported. He is claiming that we need to raise taxes for the war but, of course, there was no need to raise taxes for his 2,000% stimulus budget.
The difference is that he wanted stimulus to pass with American support. In this case, he wants support for the war to diminish and, therefore, he is threatening supporters of the war with punitive taxes. Essentially, he is undermining the war effort.

















