Bush’s new Iraq jobs program is going to cost a billion dollars. As Marty Kaplan points out in The Huffington Post, Congress could “repeal one zillionth of one percent of the cut in capital gains tax that Bush gave the wealthiest Americans. That would raise a billion in a heartbeat.”
This idea, though more than sensible, does not appeal to Sen. John McCain, who told Al Hunt: “I’m not sure what the point would be. I would certainly ask Americans to serve. I would ask them to make other sacrifices, but I’m not sure I would want to raise their taxes just because we’re in a war.”
E.J. Dionne Jr. points out that, since 2001, we have offered two dollars in tax cuts for every dollar we have spent on war.