I've posted previously on my puzzlement at complaints over the cost of this war.
Today (well, now, yesterday), David Frum explains the true source of the complaints:
So when the Democrats today uncork their whines about the Iraq money, understand that the issue is not Iraq – the issue is their still uncontrollable fury at President Bush for snatching all that lovely surplus money away from them in 2001 and sending it back home beyond their reach. And their fondest dream since 9/11 has been to use the war on terror as a justification for rescinding the tax cut and grabbing the money back so they can spend it – not on the war (for which no tax increase is needed), but on their domestic spending agenda.When the day comes that higher taxes are needed to pay the costs of war, of course we should have them. But that’s not what this argument is about. The tax cuts that the Democrats are most eager to repeal are the tax cuts that go into effect in 2005, 2006, and later – tax cuts that have no relevance to the war today, but that cramp and constrain their spending ambitions of tomorrow.
This seems entirely correct to me.
Posted by oscarjr at September 16, 2003 01:45 AM | TrackBack