Dem Leaders Shoot Down War Tax

Boy, that didn't take long:

When three senior Democrats proposed a special tax Tuesday to fund the war in Iraq, it was quickly shot down and dismissed as half-baked. And that was the view of Democratic leaders.

While the GOP ridicule of a new income surtax to fund the next $200 billion in wartime spending was predictable, the rapid dismissal by both the House speaker and the Senate majority leader showed just how politically toxic the issue of tax increases remains for Democrats.

“Some have suggested that shared sacrifice should take the form of a draft; others have suggested a surtax,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said just hours after House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.), Defense Appropriations Chairman John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) and Rep. James P. McGovern (D-Mass.) proposed the new levy. “Just as I have opposed the war from the outset, I am opposed to a draft and I am opposed to a war surtax.”

“Certainly we’re not talking about anything like that over here,” added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

All of that probably means that when Bush asks for his supplemental funding bill, he'll probably get it, and there won't be any troop reductions attached either.