Rep. Price: War surtax 'cynical'

A so-called "war surtax" to finance the White House's new strategy in Afghanistan would be "as cynical as it is irresponsible," one GOP lawmaker said Monday.

Rather, Congress would be better off using the budget process to spurn the dollars needed to pay for the president's expected announcement of a 34,000-strong troop increase to the war-torn state, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) told CNN this morning.

"There's all sorts of money that has been ill-spent to date. I would propose to the president that he begins to decrease spending in non-defense areas, non-defense discretionary areas in Washington where you can save significant amounts of money," the congressman said.

Price's line is the latest in a series of warning shots House lawmakers from both parties have fired at the "war surtax" proposal, pitched earlier this month by House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.) and a handful of other Democrats.

Many, however, are slowly backing away from that idea. Even Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) on Sunday stressed it was an inappropriate time to levy such a fee.

"In the middle of a recession we're probably not going to be able to increase taxes to pay for it," he told CBS's "Face the Nation."

"That should have happened some time ago," the senator added.

All told, however, Price did suggest he supported the president's plan to add a new round of troops to the Afghan mission. He also predicted his fellow GOPers would similarly support the president's effort, provided Obama refrained from discussing an exit strategy during his address on Tuesday -- another position a number of Republicans have staked since this weekend.

"[If] he talks about an exit strategy only, and if he talks about benchmarks in terms of calendar timelines, then that's where the challenge is, because the Afghan people are just sitting on the fence," Price said. "They're hedging their bets right now. They are not certain America is committed to prevailing in this mission."

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