war funding
This is as close to a smackdown as you get on Capital Hill:
Pelosi Dismisses Obey’s War Surtax
Dec. 3, 2009, 12:11 p.m.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday shot down a proposal by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) to impose a surtax to cover the costs of the Afghanistan war.
“I’m not in support of the proposal by Mr. Obey,” Pelosi told reporters. “With the highest regard for Mr. Obey, that is his idea. He is speaking for himself.”
Ezra Klein totally unloaded yesterday on the deficit hawks who have been largely or completely silent on paying for the $30 BILLION it's going to cost to send the additional troops to Afghanistan. Here's the money quote:
...this town is packed full of deficit hawks. Where are the editorial pages on this? Where's the Peterson Institute? David Walker? The Committee for a Responsible Budget?
Update 12/2: I was appropriately corrected by Maya MacGuineas, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's executive director, for missing this, and this. As Brad DeLong would say, that's a smackdown. That doesn't excuse the other so-called deficit hawks either for not engaging or, worse, running in the other direction on the war costs, but it does mean that CRFB is...and...was on the case.
