Republican lawmaker says he would 'consider' a war tax as last resort

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he would "consider" supporting a war surtax should President Barack Obama withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan.

King, a conservative lawmaker, is one of the only Republicans who have said they would contemplate the measure, which is favored by liberal Democrats.

"If the alternative is to pull everyone out, I would certainly consider a war tax," King told The Hill in a telephone interview. "But I think there are better alternatives."

Spending unused funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailouts and the federal stimulus on the war effort ranked among the other options King said he would favor before backing the war surtax introduced last week by House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.).

Though he said he would "consider" backing the measure as a last resort, King said that he saw the measure as a "wedge issue for liberals" to pressure the Obama administration to pull troops out of the war-torn nation.

The fourth-term congressman said he would "consider" the measure because victory in Afghanistan is of utmost importance.

"We have to defend American people and the American way of life," he said on KSCJ Radio (Iowa) this morning.

King's final support for the tax, however, is not likely. President Obama has said that he will make his decision on sending more troops soon and reports have said he favors deploying an additional 34,000 units to supplement existing troops on the ground.

Obey, whose bill is co-sponsored by a number of liberal Democrats, said that the surtax was intended to ensure the war effort and any additional troops along with it should be paid for by means other than deficit-spending.

"Regardless of whether one favors the war or not, if it is to be fought, it ought to be paid for," the lawmakers said in a statement. "Now the president is being asked to consider an enlarged counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, which proponents tell us will take at least a decade and would also cost about a trillion dollars. But unlike the healthcare bill, that would not be paid for."

In 2007, Obey introduced a similar measure to fund the Iraq war, which Congress did not pass.