Clyburn: Congress must make 'sacrifices' to pay for Afghan war

Both voters and lawmakers should prepare to make "sacrifices" this year in order to pay for a continuation of the war in Afghanistan, the House's third-most powerful Democrat said Wednesday.

While House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) ultimately stopped short of endorsing the "war surtax" proposal that a handful of his colleagues seem to support, he did stress during his interview with CNN today that Congress had to do something soon to fund the war effort in full.

"The fact of the matter is, if we want to pay for everything else, roads and bridges and highways, we ought to be paying for this war," Clyburn said. "I think the problem that we have in our society today is that we undertook this effort in Afghanistan, and then we went off, dithering, if you please, in Iraq, and we didn't make any attempt to pay for this."

"The only people making sacrifices were those people on the battlefield," the congressman added. "We should get serious about making the necessary sacrifices right here at home and pay for this war."

The idea for a "war surtax" belongs chiefly to Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.), chairman of the House's Appropriations Committee.

In a statement announcing a bill containing the tax, which so far has the support of 11 top House Democrats, Obey urged lawmakers to impose the fee as early as 2011 to pay for the War in Afghanistan and subsequent international conflicts.

“Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for,” Reps. Obey, John Murtha (D-Pa.) and John Larson (D-Conn.) said in a statement last week.

“If we don’t address the cost of this war, we will continue shoving billions of dollars in taxes off on future generations and will devour money that could be used to rebuild our economy by fixing our broken health care system, expanding educational opportunities and job training possibilities, attacking our long term energy problems and building stronger communities," they added. "We cannot allow the war to derail that potential.”

Clyburn on Wednesday acknowledged he had discussed with Obey the possibility of a surtax, among other ways to pay for the president's expected, forthcoming troop increase. But the House Democratic Whip did not throw his support behind Obey's bill, perhaps signifying the Democratic leadership is still mulling other options to fund the Afghan mission.

"We talked about this, not just taking ownership, but also paying for this [war]," Clyburn merely said of the conversation.

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