E. J. Dionne of The Washington Post offers the best repsonse I’ve seen to President Bush’s call Sunday night for “sacrifice” and an additional $87 billion for the war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan:
The fiscal burden for this war does not have to be piled onto future generations. And it should not be borne by Americans most in need, the ones who would suffer from the budget cuts that bigger deficits would inevitably bring on. It’s now obvious that the country cannot afford huge expenditures for war and reconstruction along with continued outsized tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
If Bush wants us to believe that this war is as important as he says it is, he needs to ask something from himself and something from Americans who can most afford it. That means rescinding some of his tax cuts for the most well-off even if his campaign contributors squawk. If Bush and his friends aren’t willing to sacrifice anything for this cause, they abandon the right to ask sacrifices from of the rest of us.
