Tax the Rich to Pay For Troops?

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Afghanistan

(Getty Images)

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin (right), a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is arguing that wealthy taxpayers should perhaps shoulder the cost of sending additional troops in Afghanistan.

In an interview for Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," the senator suggests funding additional troops with an "additional income tax to the upper brackets, folks earning more than $200,000 or $250,000."

"They have done incredibly well, and I think that it's important that we pay for it if we possibly can," Levin said, according to Bloomberg. He also called for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide half of the new soldiers sent to Afghanistan.

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has put the cost of each additional troop at $1 million.

President Obama is expected to announce his new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the coming weeks, following a protracted deliberation.

The top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has reportedly requested 40,000 new troops to be added to the roughly 70,000 U.S. troops (and 40,000 troops from other countries) there now.

CBSNews.com Special Report: Afghanistan

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by nancyobama November 25, 2009 8:37 PM EST: the first thing I will do if this tax on the rich bill pass is to divorce my wife just to get under the 200k limit; Reply to this comment

by moolaroo November 23, 2009 10:38 AM EST

Levin & the Dems want to pay for the war that Obama campaigned was the right war in the right place, at the right time by taxing those earning more than $200,000 a year? How convenient, Senators earn $174,000.

BTW a word of advice for Carl Levin. I realize you come from the state of Michigan where you can live like royalty on $200,000 - but in California $200,000 will get you a 2 bedroom condo and a used minivan. Wake up!

Reply to this comment


by nancyobama November 25, 2009 8:39 PM EST: well said, I am wondering why our stupid congressman or women from CA kept their mouth shut on this?


by FauxNews November 23, 2009 6:57 AM EST: Karl Marx would be proud.; Reply to this comment


by mrjustice1 November 23, 2009 5:07 AM EST: HEY PRIVILEGED RICH! CLEAN YOUR OWN TOILETS, DO REAL WORK, AND...

...put yourselves and your children on the front lines in the wars you start, and which you make regular, decent, hard-working people die for, pay for, and suffer for.

Also open your secret and your overseas bank accounts, as well as place your other hidden assets in full view, to be heavily taxed for all the years you cheated this country, cheated your community and cheated your 'expendable' compatriots, who you use and abuse for your vanities and for your lavish, selfish and greedy lifestyles.

Start paying for, suffering for, and dying for America, and for the just causes you have trivialized and neglected throughout your entire lifetimes...

...before you are dragged out of your homes, out of your offices, out of your country clubs, etc, to pay what you really owe!

Start doing work to benefit others, and stop your inconsiderate and parasitic existence!; Reply to this comment


by mrjustice1 November 23, 2009 5:03 AM EST: HEY PRIVILEGED RICH! CLEAN YOUR OWN TOILETS, DO REAL WORK, AND...

...put yourselves and your children on the front lines in the wars you start, and which you make regular, decent, hard-working people die for, pay for, and suffer for.

Also open your secret and your overseas bank accounts, as well as place your other hidden assets in full view, to be heavily taxed for all the years you cheated this country, cheated your community and cheated your 'expendable' compatriots, who you use and abuse for your vanities and for your lavish, selfish and greedy lifestyles.

Start paying for, suffering for, and dying for America, and for the just causes you have trivialized and neglected throughout your entire lifetimes...

...before you are dragged out of your homes, out of your offices, out of your country clubs, etc, to pay what you really owe!

Start doing work to benefit others, and stop your inconsiderate and parasitic existence!; Reply to this comment


by gboyd41 November 23, 2009 12:45 AM EST: I am waiting to see how many want to work to hit that magical "rich" level-and be taxed. I will bet they can't wait.; Reply to this comment


by billards53 November 22, 2009 9:09 PM EST: They just hocked their only chamber pot and mouth the Limbaugh party line . Go figure .We are facing the worse crisis for working class people in our history and the elite in DC and NYC bail each other out .The health care that we can't afford now will become unaffordable for many and unavoidable ( compulsory ) otherwise .The biggest economic swindle ever has happened and we argue about the quality of a mayor from a town at the end of a bridge to nowhere . Irony rules .; Reply to this comment

by californiadreaming November 22, 2009 4:24 PM EST

Sen Levin sounds like a total idiot! We should be examining why we are even in these wars - and how to withdraw from them, not half-baked ideas for funding more killing.

I don't feel very safe knowing that people as stupid as Sen Levin are elected to lead this country.

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by Omni-Present101 November 22, 2009 7:25 PM EST: David Gregory Catches "Joltin" Joe Lieberman [[Lying Of Course]]

On the High Cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq War Cost 12 trillion and its Not Paid For, or Budget Neutral and Additional Cost of 9 Trillion more Dollars added to the already 12 Trillion Dollars, we Owe Communist-Socialist China, with Interest.
_____________

MR. GREGORY: I just want to...

SEN. LIEBERMAN: I don't want to do that.

MR. GREGORY: Are you consistent on this matter? If you say you don't like a public option because of how it might influence the debt, will you apply that same standard to escalating the war in Afghanistan?

Should that be deficit-neutral, what we spend on Afghanistan?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Incidentally, over the years, back in the Bush administration, I put forward tax programs to pay for the wars because I, I don't know of another time in our history when we went to war and didn't pay for it.

That's part of why we have the enormous debt that we have now, [$12 Trillion] today, predicted to add [[$9 Trillion]] in the next 10 years.

MR. GREGORY: All right, so that's the question.

SEN. LIEBERMAN: It, it's going to...

MR. GREGORY: You, you would pay for escalation in Afghanistan? It would have to be paid for?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Absolutely.

Note: Lieberman is Giving Gregory Borderline Bull Spit and Gregory Knows it too.


by Omni-Present101 November 22, 2009 7:38 PM EST: You sounjd like an Idiot, are You Rich, do you make Half a Million or 300,000 a year for the past Decade, if not, why are you Defending the Super Rich that Create these Wars, Gamble with other Peoples Money, Waste that Money and the US Government Bails them out, with Tax payers Money and Leave the Poor, Middle and Working Classes to Pay Off the Rich's Debts, while the Average Tax Payers are Thrown in the Damn Street and the Rich are back to High Fiving on WallStreet and saying the Economy is Great Again !!

Corporate Welfare is Great..Huh

You sound like a Limbaugh Fanatic, His Money is Your Money, His Fame and Fortune is Yours and its Your Duty to Defend His Riches...

That's Dumb and Idiotic

Reality: You're Not Them, Stop Pretending, You'll Never be them.

by environmental_wacko November 22, 2009 2:12 PM EST

In a word -- yeah. Also draft their kids. Then maybe we can all get back on the same sheet of music.

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by pjk12354 November 22, 2009 3:31 PM EST: Ditto!


by billards53 November 22, 2009 5:53 PM EST: A lot of institutions unloaded stocks in companies that are involved with armanents . Is owning stock in blackwater a christian value ? Frightening is that a solid third of the electorate still support these wars and they are from the christian right .Had the right war in afghanistan been emphasized this debate would not be necessary . Mission accomplished ? Let the people who backed bush in Iraq start a fundraiser to pay for a war fought 7 years too late .

by lmartink November 22, 2009 1:59 PM EST

They should tax the Christian Evangelical Warlords and other arrogant, asinine Republicans who wanted these wars -- while at the same time refusing to fund them --- talking about tax cuts, while fighting two of the most expensive wars in history, and leaving us with a debt of over 1 trillion dollars.

And all of it for so very little in return.

Make those who wanted these stupid Crusades pay for them. Tax the churches too.

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by billards53 November 22, 2009 5:26 PM EST: Bush started his war just in time for an election campaign . This left John Kerry in a difficult spot . To attack a standing president during a crisis is touchy . Having won the 2004 election he and his friends in business and congress looted the treasury , pension funds , 401 k's stocks etc. Now they place the blame on tax happy spendocrats .One the most corrupt administrations in US history pulled off a heist and passed laws to make it legal . Incredible