John McCain, in one of his recent campaign speeches, claimed that, by the end of his presidency, he will have won the war in Iraq, balanced the budget, and brought Osama bin Laden to justice. All this will have been accomplished without raising taxes.
First, what we’ve had in Iraq for the last five years is an occupation and, technically, you can’t “win” an occupation.
Secondly, you cannot finance a worldwide network of military bases and expeditions without raising taxes unless you plunge the country into an unprecedented level of debt and sell it off to foreign nations, as Bush has done, compromising our national safety and integrity, and/or leave it to burden our children and grandchildren.
In a 1904 Supreme Court decision, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” As soon as we return to the principle of a progressive tax wherein those who benefit the most pay the most, and restore the middle class that the tax-cutting practices of the past 28 years has methodically destroyed, we may see a return to a civilized society in which the drive toward a safe and efficient infrastructure, jobs for those able to work, affordable health care for all, and a safety net for those who cannot care for themselves will once again characterize our government.
This article appears in Aug 7-14, 2008.